New Era, New Adventures
by ImpulsesOfLife
Summary: Camp is still a little dreary even though it's been almost a year since the Giant war, so Leo decides to plan a trip for him and his friends: 3 weeks of camping in the great outdoors! Fun, food, and new adventures of a different type than usual bring the demigods closer together in an unexpected way. Pairings include Percabeth, Jasper, Frazel, Caleo, Tratie, Gruniper and Solangelo.
1. Guess Again!

**Hi :D I decided to start a new fic which will be multi-chapter and, hopefully, on the longer side.** **Peace and enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own, and never will own, Percy Jackson and the Olympians or The Heroes of Olympus. All rights belong to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

 **Annabeth's POV**

Annabeth woke to the sounds of waves crashing, birds chirping, and Katie Gardner yelling rather viciously at Travis Stoll—or in other words, a rather normal day at Camp Half-Blood. It was only 6:30 a.m., but the sun was already up, and there were a few campers milling around, bumping volleyballs back and forth and sword fighting energetically. It seemed like today was going to be a good day.

Annabeth rolled lazily out of bed and stripped out of her pyjamas before pulling on a pair of worn denim shorts and a ratty old Camp Half-Blood t-shirt. She practically lived by that outfit. What demigod really needed a whole extensive wardrobe, anyway? (And Annabeth knew the Aphrodite kids—those stinking "fashionistas"—would protest strongly against that remark, but hey, you didn't really need to look fashionable when you were sword fighting and climbing rock walls spewing lava, did you?)

Annabeth yawned widely as she grabbed her dagger off her nightstand and strung it around her belt loop. She opened the door and a gust of warm wind blew in, immediately making Annabeth glad she'd gotten out of bed when she did. She turned around and surveyed the room—at least half a dozen children of Athena were still sound asleep, nestled up in their blankets. Her favourite half-sibling Malcolm's mouth was wide open, and a little line of drool was snaking its way down his cheek. Annabeth smiled and stepped outside, closing the cabin door softly behind her.

Since not everyone was awake, she decided to walk around camp for a bit to see which of her friends were already up so she could hang out with someone.

As Annabeth walked the long of the cabins, she noticed Katie and Travis on the front porch of the Demeter cabin. Annabeth looked behind them and discovered the reason Katie had been yelling earlier. The Demeter cabin, which Katie was head counsellor of, was strung from top to bottom with toilet paper.

Annabeth raised her eyebrows and looked over at Travis—resident camp prankster along with his twin brother, Connor—who shrugged innocently. Katie kept shooting him peeved glares. Annabeth opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, Travis butted in.

"I know what you're going to say," he stated matter-of-factly, staring at Annabeth. "And I agree. It was a _great_ idea for me to decorate the cabin this way!", he said in shaky confidence, glancing frequently at Katie to gauge her reactions. "The West façade—well, and the North, and the South, and the… oh whatever. As I was saying, it's so bright and cushy now! And–"

Katie's face was turning red, and she glared murderously at Travis, who immediately held up his hands in defence. "Whoa, babe, don't get mad at me! I used your favourite type—two-ply!"

That did it. Katie, who was clearly infuriated, raised her hands up wordlessly. Tendrils of poison ivy sprouted from the cabin's wooden deck, slithering upwards and wrapping themselves tightly around Travis's legs before he could do anything about it. Travis yelped as Katie grew the poison ivy vines up to his waist and tightened them to the extreme. Katie just smirked.

"Next time you decide to T.–P. my cabin," Katie drawled in a dangerous tone of voice filled with extreme false-sweetness, "Remember I have the power to wrap you up in every poisonous plant you could ever dream of." Travis gaped at her confusedly. Katie never usually went this far revenge-wise when Travis pranked her or her cabin. "Think twice before you prank, _babe._ No kisses for a week. And have fun sitting there wrapped up in _that_ itchy little cocoon until your equally stupid brother comes to rescue you."

With that, Katie pantomimed dusting off her hands, as if to say, _Just another day taking care of Travis._ Annabeth stood there for a couple seconds as Katie walked off, unsure what she'd just witnessed. Then she smacked her forehead for being so stupid. It was obvious what had just happened: The Stolls had pulled another "epic" prank on the Demeter cabin, and Katie had given the First Brother Caught a punishment. Said brother would probably start begging Annabeth to help him right about—

"Annabeeeth," whined Travis. "Help me. It's so… So… Itchy…" Travis pretended to faint, forgetting the vines did nothing to support his weight and falling over in the process. Annabeth appraised the situation in three seconds flat and turned on her heel, stalking off in the opposite direction. She had no idea why she'd even watched that pathetic little scene, when all she'd really wanted to do was find Percy.

"Anna… Beth… Help… Meeeee…" came Travis's voice from behind her, but Annabeth didn't dare look behind her. Travis could be so stupid sometimes. There was no way Annabeth would help the very same guy who'd peeked on her and Percy having a makeout session and then blabbed about it to the whole camp.

Her and Percy had been pretty embarrassed—Chiron had publicly punished them, which was humiliating for Annabeth but not as bad for Percy. Apparently it was manly for a guy to kiss his girlfriend when it wasn't allowed, but for Annabeth, who was a respected, knowledgable daughter of Athena…? Pretty disrespectful. It was against camp rules for two campers of different genders to be alone together in a cabin, but Annabeth and Percy still did it all the time (much to Percy's enjoyment). They were among the oldest at camp—it wasn't like a ten-year-old would happen upon them and then rat them out to Chiron. No, only a Stoll brother would do such a thing.

Travis yelped from the deck, but Annabeth just kept walking until his quiet complaints and nagging whines were out of earshot—He'd also taken pictures of that makeout sesh mentioned earlier.

Annabeth walked until she came to cabin number three; Poseidon's cabin, where Percy stayed all in his lonesome. She knocked three times on the door, bouncing on the balls of her feet. She heard the rustle of bed sheets and then a loud _thump_ from inside the cabin, and then Percy mumbled, "Get _lost,_ guys, I don't need a makeover." Annabeth stifled her laughter and knocked again, calling, "It's Annabeth."

More rustling sheets. "Oh," said Percy. "Hold on."

A half second later, the door was flung upon, revealing Percy in nothing but his boxer shorts. Annabeth blushed, staring at his abs. All that sword fighting really did do him good. Percy, as oblivious as usual, didn't catch why Annabeth was blushing until he followed her gaze down to his naked chest and smirked. "Enjoying the view?" Annabeth blushed even harder and shoved him lightly out of the way, stepping into the cabin. She considered snorting and telling him to put on a shirt, which is what she would've done if they hadn't been dating, but since she actually _was_ enjoying the view, she flopped onto Percy's bed and stared some more. Percy's smirk widened, and he bent down to pick up a pair of sweat pants off the floor. Annabeth sat up as Percy wiggled into his sweats.

Once he was done putting them on, he plopped down beside her. "So," Percy grinned. "How's it going?" Annabeth smiled and grabbed his hand. "Good," she said. "Travis covered the Demeter cabin in toilet paper again."

Percy frowned. "Gods, I can't believe I missed it. _Again_." Annabeth smirked this time, bumping shoulders with Percy. "Travis is probably still out there covered in poison ivy and whining, if you wanna go see," she suggested. Percy shook his head. "Nah. I'd rather spend time with you."

Annabeth blushed lightly, and turned her face to look at Percy, who was staring intently at her. He leaned in and kissed her. Annabeth threaded one hand through his soft, raven-black hair, which was still unbrushed from him sleeping on it, and ran her other hand over his bare chest. Percy smiled against her lips, weaving one arm around her waist and the other around her back. Just then, the door flew open, and Leo stomped in, flanked on either side by Jason and Piper. A crazy grin was on Leo's face. "'Sup, guys, I–"

Leo then noticed a half-naked Percy and a wild-looking Annabeth sitting on Percy's bed, mid-kiss. "Ohhh-kay, well that was awkward," said Leo. Annabeth noticed Percy shoot him a meaningful look, like, _Get lost, dude, I'm kissing my girlfriend here,_ but Leo either didn't notice or chose to ignore it because he continued talking like nothing happened.

"So. As I was saying… I have planned the vacation of a _lifetime_ for us!" he cried excitedly. Percy and Annabeth broke apart, and Percy slung an arm around Annabeth's shoulders, cocking an eyebrow discreetly at her. She gave a tiny shrug which only Percy could feel, and they turned to Leo.

"A _vacation_?" questioned Annabeth skeptically.

Leo nodded enthusiastically. "Yup!"

Percy scrunched up his face in concentration. "Let me guess… Paris?" Leo snorted. "Pfft, _Paris, rrron rrron rrron._ Ah, _non._ "

"I wish," muttered Piper. "And by the way, you have a _horrible_ French accent." Jason shot her an apologetic glance, like, _Sorry this is happening, but come on, you know Leo wouldn't plan a trip to somewhere as great as Paris._

"Guess again," said Leo, not deterred in the slightest way.

"Greece," said Annabeth.

"Nope," replied Leo.

"Spain," she tried again.

"No."

"Jamaica."

"No."

"Alberta."

" _No._ It's hella cold there."

"Okay… Hawaii."

"NO. You know what, I'll just tell you," sighed Leo. "We're not exactly visiting the place we're staying, but it's in Canada."

"I thought you just said Canada was 'hella cold,'" argued Annabeth.

"No, I said _Alberta_ was hella cold. What we're doing will be somewhere else in Canada."

"Oh," shrugged Annabeth.

An awkward silence ensued.

Percy broke the silence first. "Well… What are we doing?" he asked Leo.

"Oh, right!" said Leo, snapping his fingers. "We're going… CAMPING!"

* * *

 **First chapter and it's not super long, but hopefully the next one will be posted pretty quickly. I'm not going to set a posting schedule though unless there's popular demand for one, because it's a lot of pressure.**

 **–** **ImpulsesOfLife**


	2. One More Night

**Chapter 2 :) Hope you like it!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO; Everything belongs to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

 **Leo's POV**

Leo stood before everyone he'd invited to go camping with an enormous grin plastered across his face. Camping—One of Leo's greatest ideas yet, besides going back to Ogygia for Calypso and saving Buford from that supply closet. He couldn't wait for three weeks in the great outdoors with his favourite demigods (and immortal Titan and oracle and satyr and dryad).

Leo looked around at his sixteen invitees, waiting for a response to his big "We're going camping! …You can cheer now!" announcement. Percy, Annabeth, Jason and Piper already knew, having been his main consultants for whether or not they should go. They'd all said yes (much to his delight). Although… Annabeth and Piper had looked pretty reluctant… And come to think of it, so had Percy and Jason… Leo shook off the thought of them possibly not wanting to go. Of _course_ they wanted to go! Leo Supreme Commander of the Argo II (in all his super hot… um, hotness) Valdez was planning their sure-to-be-awesome trip. How could it be anything less than perfect?

But the demigods gathered around Leo looked skeptical of his brilliant idea. Leo knew he had to save his one-of-a-kind camping trip idea.

"So!" cried Leo. "Who's in? Percy, Annabeth, Jason and Piper are already coming—and me, of course—but it wouldn't be the same without all of you guys!"

No one spoke.

"Come on," whined Leo. "It'll be _awesome_."

Still the room stayed silent.

"Seriously, guys?"

Leo failed to notice that everyone in the room was very intent on not answering him—and on not going camping.

"For the love of Zeus! I promise you it won't be anything less than perfect," he vowed, speaking his thoughts from earlier. "Just give it a chance! If you hate it _that_ much while we're out camping in the great wilderness of Canada, then Nico can shadow-travel you back early."

Nico shot him a death glare for that one, but Leo didn't really care.

"So…?" prompted Leo.

Someone finally cleared their throat and began to talk. Leo was not enthused when he saw it was Frank.

"I guess I'll go," said Frank cautiously.

"YES!" cried Leo.

"But only because it's in Canada!" continued Frank hurriedly, probably not wanting anyone to think he was a sucker for Leo's stupid ideas. Then Leo thought for a second about why Frank had said yes. Because it was in Canada…? _Right,_ thought Leo, _Chinese Canadian Baby Man._ He remembered Percy telling him about Arion's dislike of poor Frank and the name he'd called him. Frank was Chinese-Canadian.

Leo grinned evilly at the rest of his comrades. "Ol' Frank here is coming. Who's next?" Frank pouted when he heard Leo call him 'Ol' Frank'. The rest of his friends sighed. "I'll come," said Hazel reluctantly, grabbing Frank's hand. Everyone else slowly agreed.

" _Thank_ you!" shouted Leo. "We're leaving tomorrow morning bright and early, so make sure you have everything you need!"

"Wait," piped Hazel. "I don't exactly know everyone here…"

"Right," replied Leo. "Everyone get in a circle. We'll go around and introduce ourselves and our godly parents. Or, if you're not a demigod… Well, just say whatever you feel like saying."

Everyone shuffled into a circle. "I'll go first," offered Leo. "Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus."

He pointed to the person on his right, and then said, "We'll go this way."

"Jason Grace, son of Jupiter."

"Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite."

"Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto."

"Frank Zhang, son of Mars."

"Rachel Dare, Oracle of Delphi."

"Katie Gardener, daughter of Demeter."

"Travis Stoll, son of Hermes."

"Connor Stoll, son of Hermes."

"Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."

"Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon."

"Grover Underwood, satyr and Lord of the Wild."

"Juniper, dryad."

"Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus and Lieutenant of Artemis."

"Nico di Angelo, son of Hades."

"Will Solace, son of Apollo."

"Calypso, daughter of Atlas."

"And that's that!" concluded Leo. "If you forget someone's name… Don't hesitate to ask the person what their name is like a normal human being would. _But,_ if you're weirdly shy, ask me. Just kidding, don't ask me, ask Percy."

Percy shot Leo a glare. "Why can't you answer questions? You're the one that planned this trip."

Leo shot a glare back at Percy. "Because, Mr. I Saved The World A Billion Times, you know everyone here better."

Percy sighed. "That's true. I _am_ more popular than you."

"Hey!" protested Leo. "That's not what I meant!"

Percy cracked a smile. "I know, I was kidding. But seriously," he said, addressing the rest of the room, "If you have a question, you can ask me. And if I don't know then ask Leo."

Leo waved his hand at the room in a _Be gone!_ gesture. "You're all dismissed! Meet me at the camp's strawberry service van at the bottom of Half-Blood Hill tomorrow morning, six a.m. sharp!"

The room let out a collective groan and dispersed. Leo knew they weren't all too excited to go camping, but he was sure they'd change their minds once they were there.

• • •

 **Jason's POV**

Jason absolutely _did not_ want to go camping with dangerous, over-eccentric Leo. He couldn't even think about the idea of spending three weeks in the midst of a huge forest with a son of Hephaestus who caught on fire uncontrollably. Thankfully they had a day to process it all and think of ways to keep themselves safe from Leo (and monsters).

Jason and Piper were supposed to be going on a double date that night with Percy and Annabeth. Jason had thought that Leo's weird idea would reign superiority over a date night and cancel it out, but Percy and Annabeth still seemed game to go and Jason knew Piper had really been looking forward to it, so at seven o'clock he headed into his cabin to get changed out of his purple Camp Jupiter t-shirt and ripped blue jeans.

Jason headed over to his dresser and rummaged through the drawers, looking for something nice to wear. Finally he decided on an outfit which he hoped was formal but not too formal: A faded blue plaid dress shirt which he rolled up at the sleeves, and a pair of crisp dark jeans which he'd never worn before (heck, he hadn't even known he'd had them). Then, in a spur of-the-moment decision, Jason grabbed the tiny emergency bottle of Gendarme's Sky cologne he'd stuffed in his sock drawer for romantic situations and spritzed some on. Then he put a few more spritzes on because he couldn't smell any from the first spritz. Hopefully he didn't reek like a lady's perfume… Jason never really wore cologne, but he felt like tonight it'd be appropriate because it was technically his and Piper's first official date.

Him and Percy had arranged to meet at the Poseidon cabin twenty minutes before they were supposed to meet up with Annabeth and Piper so they could make sure everything was set and they both looked presentable. When Jason stepped into the Poseidon cabin, he found that Percy had dressed in the same not-too-fancy, not-too-casual look as Jason. He was wearing a pair of beige khakis and a dark blue plaid dress shirt, also rolled up at the sleeves.

"Hey, man," said Percy. "You read— _whoa,_ are you wearing _cologne_?" Percy grimaced, plugging his nose.

Jason blushed. "Yeah… Did I put too much on?"

"Uh, _yeah._ Come on, we need to get you to the Aphrodite cabin."

" _Excuse_ me?" stuttered Jason. "I don't know about you, but I am _not_ going into that torture chamber. I'm sure it's fine."

"Relax," replied Percy, rolling his eyes. "It's not fine. And it's only to take off some of that nasty cologne."

"Hey!" exclaimed Jason. "It's not nasty!"

"I guess it wouldn't be if you'd just put on a tiny spritz instead of _bathing in it_."

"Whatever," he muttered, "Let's just go. We're not asking a girl for help, though, got it?"

"Sure," shrugged Percy.

Once they got to the Aphrodite cabin, the door was flung open and a tall blond kid with brown eyes stood in the frame. "Geez, who's wearing cologne?" demanded the kid with a grimace.

Percy smirked at Jason with a look like, _I told you so,_ before turning towards the kid.

"Hey Mitchell. It's Jason. He apparently has no clue how to properly spray cologne on himself. Can you fix him?"

Mitchell turned towards Jason and thought for a second. "Yeah, I have something that'll do the trick."

He turned to go into the cabin, but Jason hesitated. "Um, is Piper in there?" He sure as Hades didn't want Piper finding out about this.

"No, she headed over to the Athena cabin a little while ago," Mitchell assured him, ushering Jason inside. Mitchell led them over to a large, navy blue vanity table. The counter was loaded with bottles of cologne. Mitchell opened a drawer in the table and rummaged around for a bit before finally producing a clear cologne bottle with… Absolutely nothing in it.

"Just spray this on yourself," said Mitchell, pushing the bottle towards Jason and turning back to the vanity table. Jason's eyebrows knit together and he gave Percy a look he hope communicated, _Is this kid crazy?_ but Percy just shrugged and gestured for him to try it. Jason held his breath and spritzed himself a few times with the empty bottle. Nothing seemed different to Jason, but Percy and Mitchell both exhaled relievedly.

"What?" demanded Jason.

"You can't smell the difference?" questioned Mitchell.

Jason frowned. "No…"

Mitchell clucked his tongue. "Well. _Somebody_ doesn't have a good sense of smell."

Jason shrugged and turned towards Percy. "Whatever. Thanks. Let's get out of here, Percy," he said, heading towards the door.

"Wait!" cried Mitchell, grabbing Percy's sleeve. "What?" said Percy, his eyebrows scrunching together in confusion. Mitchell smiled deviously and sprayed something on Percy. Percy fake-gagged (or maybe it was real… Jason couldn't really tell).

"What was _that_?" sputtered Percy.

Mitchell grinned like a madman. "It's cologne! Bvlgari's Aqva, to be exact. Trust me, Annabeth will love it!"

And on that last note, Mitchell ushered him and Percy out of the Aphrodite cabin, called "Good luck on your dates!" and slammed the door in their faces.

• • •

 **Annabeth's POV**

Annabeth and Piper were in the Athena cabin talking (they'd already been ready for the past half an hour—Piper and her siblings had wanted plenty of time to make them look "Gorgeous") when they heard a knock on the door. The two friends got up off Annabeth's bed and slipped on their shoes before heading to the door and their waiting boyfriends beyond it.

Annabeth flung open the door, a grin on her face. "Hi, Seaweed Brain. Hey Jason." Annabeth blushed as Percy took in her outfit (which Annabeth herself had to admit was pretty nice). Piper and her half-siblings had dressed her up in a soft, just above knee-length turquoise cap-sleeved dress. The waist was synched so it wasn't too baggy. Overall, Annabeth loved it. Unfortunately for her, the Aphrodite children had to go and ruin the comfiness of the dress by making her wear a pair of 5-inch nude heels with it. All she had to say about that was _ouch._

She smiled tentatively at Percy. Spunky, sporty Annabeth wasn't used to wearing dresses or high heels. At least she hadn't been forced to wear makeup, and luckily she didn't have any zits or acne at the moment so there'd been no need for concealer, either. She was also lucky they hadn't plastered down her hair with hairspray: It was in its natural state, loose and curly and wild. It matched Percy's hair, which he'd clearly not attempted to fix.

Percy grabbed Annabeth's hand, smiling back at her. "Hey Wise Girl," he replied. "You look amazing."

Annabeth blushed. "Thanks." She inhaled and smelt cologne rather than the faint smell of the sea that usually came with Percy. Apparently Percy had decided to try out cologne for a change. Annabeth had to admit, it smelled amazing, especially mixed with his normal son-of-Poseidon smell.

Annabeth looked to her right and saw Jason and Piper talking. She could tell Jason was admiring Piper's outfit (which was quite different than her usual look). Piper's half-siblings had picked out for her a black, white and red indigenous-patterned romper paired with red strappy heels. She had her hair in a messy bun with a feather weaved through it. Piper grinned shyly at Jason when Annabeth heard him compliment her outfit. It looked like their double date night was going to be perfect.

• • •

By the time they were back at camp, Annabeth was exhausted. It was after midnight and they'd had to run quickly and quietly back into their various cabins to avoid getting eaten by harpies—those old bags were seriously malicious. Percy and Jason had had the farthest distance to run, and she'd just witnessed Percy running into his cabin like a madman, swatting at a stumpy old harpy with black wings chasing him and yelling, "Holy Hera, _please_ watch your claws!" while Jason ran alongside him, swatting at his own lumpy, greying tagalong harpy and crying, "Why are these things so _vicious_?!"

Annabeth smirked at the sight. Her and Piper had snuck back to their cabins without a single harpy spotting them. Percy and Jason had their exercise cut out for them, but Annabeth knew there was no way the harpies would successfully catch and eat them—Percy and Jason were too powerful and too skilled.

Annabeth quietly opened her cabin door and stepped inside. All the other children of Athena were asleep (it _was_ past midnight), so Annabeth moved about the cabin stealthily, getting changed and brushing her teeth as quietly as possible.

Finally, at what her digital alarm clock told her was 12:43 a.m., Annabeth clambered into bed, completely drained. She thought about their double date for a bit—dinner at a nice Italian restaurant which Annabeth couldn't remember the name of for the life of her (it was a super complicated Italian family name), then a movie which they'd all gotten bored of pretty quickly so they'd ditched it for laser tag, which had been way more fun than a movie could've ever been. Annabeth figured that probably wasn't what regular mortals did when they went out on dates, but they were all thrill-seeking ADHD demigods. Dinner and laser tag was the closest they'd get to a date night.

Besides, laser tag had been really fun. Since no one else was playing laser tag at ten o'clock at night, they'd had the place to themselves and had decided to play Girls VS Boys. The dark room full of neon paints and lights was crazy, and the perfect place for an in-game prank (or strategically winning, whichever you'd prefer). Annabeth had watched as Piper snuck up to Jason, tapped his shoulder, pushed him up against a wall and started kissing him passionately. Jason had quickly forgotten the game and had started kissing back eagerly. Annabeth sniggered as she started shooting Jason with her laser gun. His eyes widened and his jaw went slack, tuning towards Annabeth. Then he turned back towards Piper, who smirked, grabbed his gun, backed up and started shooting at him with both her gun and his.

Boys. So naïve.

Annabeth sighed contentedly as she skimmed through the rest of the night—Percy kissing her under the stars in the quiet outside the laser tag building, Jason piggybacking Piper to the subway because her high heels were killing her feet, Annabeth leaning her head on Percy's shoulder and breathing in the scent of his cologne on the subway train back to camp.

It really had been a magical night.

Unfortunately, they had to get up in just a few hours to go camping with Leo— _Groan._ He insisted it would be amazing, but Annabeth still had her doubts. There were so many things that could go wrong camping with Leo.

But on the other hand, maybe a camping trip—three weeks of solitude in the great outdoors—would be good for them. _Can't knock it 'til you try it,_ thought Annabeth, and with the camping trip on her mind, she drifted off into sleep.

* * *

 **Next chapter should be posted soon enough :)**

 **–ImpulsesOfLife**


	3. And The Adventure Begins

**Hi! Thanks to Jasper is Golden and ThatRandomMooshroom for the Reviews :D (Seriously though, they made my day. I got home from school and was like, yussssss and did a little happy dance… And in case you're wondering, I'm totally normal)**

 **Also in the last chapter I didn't thank Sweet Cats for Reviewing but I'll thank you now ;)**

 **And okay, quick short story: It's Frank Zhang's birthday today (woohoo!) so I drew an SPQR tattoo with the crossed spears and one line of service on my wrist like a little homage to him or whatever (it actually looks pretty good, if I do say so myself) in black Crayola washable marker. My dad noticed at dinner and was like, "What's that?" and so I explained it and when I was done my parents both looked at me like I was crazy and then tried to blame my weirdness on each others' genes. I was all like,** ** _Ah, the perks of being a fangirl_** **:P**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO, all rights belong to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

 **Percy's POV**

The sound of his digital alarm clock blaring woke Percy up at the ungodly hour of 5:30 a.m. He'd only gotten five hours of sleep… That wasn't that great, but he'd slept less in the past.

Percy looked over at the duffel bag he'd packed for the camping trip and the sleeping bag he'd bought from the camp store. Leo had told them to bring clothes and, optionally, some stuff to do, so all Percy had in his bag were runners, five Camp Half-Blood t-shirts, one Camp Jupiter t-shirt, three different pairs of shorts and a pair of sweat pants.

At the moment, Percy was wearing black pyjama pants with little golden tridents on them and a faded orange Aquaman t-shirt. Since he was way too tired and way too lazy to change out of his PJs, he slipped a blue 'I swim so much, I must be a son of Poseidon!' sweatshirt over his head (his mom had found it at Target... Apparently mortals who loved to swim automatically loved Poseidon and made sweatshirts to demonstrate that), hopped into his flip flops and headed to the Dining Pavilion.

When he got there, more than a few early-risers raised their eyebrows at him or snickered. Percy ignored them. Personally, he loved his pyjamas, and he thought the sweatshirt was a really funny pun—plus his mom had given it to him as a free gift and it was really comfy.

He sat down at Poseidon's table and thought of blueberry waffles (dyed blue, of course) with maple syrup on them, and the meal, which always reminded him of home, instantly appeared on his plate.

Percy walked over to the fireplace, offered a waffle to his dad, sat back down and inhaled the rest of his waffles in lighting speed. Once he was done, he headed over to the Athena table, where Annabeth and Malcolm (who were the only children of Athena awake) were eating. Annabeth had a couple pieces of toast and an orange in front of her, while Malcolm had a full buffet breakfast of eggs, sausages, hash browns, fruit salad and toast. Percy had no idea how he managed to eat that much and still stay skinny as a stick—but then again, Percy himself also ate large quantities of food but managed to keep his tall, lanky, muscly physique. Maybe it was a demigod thing. Nevertheless, he was happy he got to eat so much and still look like he was fit.

"Morning, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth greeted, her voice slightly muffled by a bite of toast. "If you're done eating already, go see if the rest of the people coming camping are ready."

"'Kay," he replied, and headed over to the Zeus cabin. He knocked twice and just as he was about to knock a third time Jason opened up the door, dressed in a pristine-looking Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and blue jeans. Percy had no clue how the guy always managed to look put together, even at 5:45 a.m. on a weekday.

"'Sup," said Jason, motioning for Percy to come in. Percy declined, shaking his head. "Nah. Annabeth just sent me to check if everyone was ready. So… Are you ready?"

Jason nodded. "Yeah. And so is Piper."

"Hey Percy!" called Piper's voice from inside Jason's cabin. Percy raised his eyebrows, and Jason blushed. "She's just helping me pack, Jackson. That's _it._ "

"Suuuure," remarked Percy deviously. "See you in ten minutes at the entrance?"

"Yeah," replied Jason.

"Oh, one more thing—is Thalia in there, too?"

"No, I think she already left for the Dining Pavilio—"

"Jason!" called Piper. She appeared in the door frame, holding up a pair of underwear. "Are these the underwear you want, the boxer brief ones?" Then she noticed Percy still standing there and her jaw dropped. "Oh… Um… Oops?"

Jason blushed like crazy and Percy took that opportunity to pull out his custom-made monster-proof demigod iPhone (courtesy of the Hephaestus kids) to snap a picture of that priceless moment. He waved the picture in Jason's face, a grin slowly spreading across his own face.

"Better watch your back, Grace!" called Percy, walking away. "That's payback for your picture of Annabeth and I!"

"But— But I didn't even _take_ that picture, Pipes did!" protested Jason, nudging Piper with his elbow.

"Yeah, and it was adorable!" agreed Piper. "It's just you two cuddling on the beach—that's a picture of me _holding up Jason's underwear_! And Jason looks mortified and I look shocked and it looks like you caught us… You know… After you-know-what!"

"Mhmm. Don't worry, I won't use it unless I need to. See you later!" he called, heading down the line of cabins.

The next cabin he reached was Demeter's. He was just about to knock when the door flung open, startling him. Katie stood in the frame, a large backpack slung over one shoulder.

"I'm assuming you're ready…?" ventured Percy.

"Yeah," grumbled Katie, swinging the door closed behind her and stalking off in the direction of the Dining Pavilion. Clearly _she_ wasn't happy to go camping.

Next was the Hades cabin. Percy knocked and waited a few moments. He heard a thump, and a few seconds later Hazel opened the door. Her hair was a wild mess—Percy felt better knowing that he wasn't the only one with untameable hair issues.

Hazel raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you still wearing pyjamas? And are those tridents?"

Percy shrugged. "Yeah. You ready?"

"Almost," replied Hazel. "Just gotta finish packing a few more things." She tucked a strand of long, curly brown hair behind her ear.

"What about Nico?" he asked, peering into the cabin behind Hazel.

"Ummm… I _think_ he just went to the Dining Pavilion," she replied. "His duffel bag's here, and I saw him pack his stuff into it last night, so I'm pretty sure he's all good to go."

"Okay," replied Percy. "Meet us down at the entrance in ten minutes."

"Sure," agreed Hazel, shutting the cabin door. Percy moved on to the Hermes cabin, which was right beside Hades'.

The door swung open with a _bang,_ and Travis and Connor Stoll stood in the doorway, each with a suspiciously large-looking suitcase in hand. "We're ready!" cried Travis. Then he turned to Connor. "Race you to the entrance!" Percy watched as the two stumbled awkwardly up and over Half-Blood Hill with their suitcases, trying to beat the other to the entrance. Percy shrugged to himself, at a loss for words, and moved on to the Hephaestus cabin to make sure Leo was ready... Because if that little ratfink wasn't good to go at "Six o'clock sharp!", he'd have some major explaining to do. Percy had zero patience for anyone who made him wake up at five-thirty for no reason.

Percy knocked on the Hephaestus cabin door and Leo opened it right away.

" _Holà, señor_!" cried Leo way too enthusiastically. Percy didn't feel as bad about his own outfit when he saw what Leo was wearing: Pyjama pants with flames all over them and a burn hole on the right knee, a ratty old white cotton long-sleeved shirt, work boots, and to top it all off, his suspenders and magic tool belt.

Percy grimaced at Leo's choice of words and tone of voice. "Hi, Leo. You ready yet?"

"Definitely!" shouted Leo, bouncing up and down. "Meet you at the border!" With that, he ran off towards the camp's entrance.

"Ohhhhkay," muttered Percy to himself, moving on to the Apollo cabin. Will opened the door when he knocked, dressed in a white and yellow plaid shirt and ripped jean shorts. "Hey Percy," greeted Will. "You seen Nico anywhere?"

"Nope, but according to Hazel, apparently he left for the Dining Pavilion a few minutes ago. If you need to find him before we leave, you should check there."

"Okay, thanks," nodded Will, heading off towards the Dining Pavilion with a large backpack in tow.

Percy checked his phone. It was 5:56 a.m., and he figured Frank was either already at the entrance or in the Dining Pavilion, but just in case Percy went over and knocked on the Ares cabin's door.

Clarisse opened it, and when she saw it was Percy, a kinder-than-usual sneer lit up her slightly-less-ugly-than-usual pig face. "Jackson. What do _you_ want?"

"I'm looking for Frank," replied Percy, cutting to the chase. "Is he in there?"

"No."

"Okay. See you later then." Percy turned on his heel and walked off towards the Dining Pavilion before Clarisse had a chance to engage in further conversation with him.

Luckily, when he got there, Calypso, Rachel, Grover and Juniper were all hanging around Annabeth at the Athena table, so Percy hadn't had to go off on a mini quest for them.

He walked up to Annabeth, who was just getting up from her table, and hugged her. "Ready for this, Wise Girl?"

Annabeth smiled cautiously at Percy. "Well, I'll probably never be ready for anything Leo throws at us. But I guess."

Percy grinned. "Come with me to my cabin?"

"Why?"

"I left my duffel bag there."

Annabeth sighed but then smiled again. "Okay, fine. But I left my backpack in my cabin, so you're gonna have to come with me in there after, too."

"Deal."

Percy and Annabeth retrieved their bags from each of their cabins and headed down to the camp's entrance. Annabeth checked her own monster-proof iPhone for the time. "Uh-oh," she murmured. "It's six-oh-two."

Percy paled. An angry Leo was a scary Leo—but he wasn't too worried, because Annabeth was way scarier when she was angry, so he was pretty sure he could deal with a crazed Leo.

When they neared the van outside the entrance, Leo jumped out and ran to them.

"Where have you guys been?" he demanded. "It's two after six! I said six on the dot!"

Percy rolled his eyes. "Leo. Two minutes isn't going to change a thing."

"Yeah it will! We could get caught in some traffic now, or—"

Annabeth shot what looked like her most menacing death glare yet in Leo's direction. That cut him right off. Percy was definitely glad he wasn't on the receiving end of _that_ —he almost felt a little bad for Leo.

"I—um, I mean, it's fine. Just get in the back."

Annabeth smiled calmly at him and opened the back doors of the van, where thirteen teens were already squished onto the cushions. Him and Annabeth squeezed onto the end. Percy got squished up against Frank because Annabeth refused to sit anywhere but the end seat.

"So…" said Jason as they felt the van lurch forward and start to drive off. "Ready to get rid of that picture? You know you wanna."

Annabeth raised her eyebrows at Percy. "What picture?"

Percy smiled sheepishly and pulled out his phone to show Annabeth the picture. Jason was standing holding the door open, a horrified expression on his red-as-a-tomato face. Piper stood behind him holding up boxer briefs—which Percy now realized had little lightning bolts all over them—her mouth forming a perfect 'O' and her eyes wide as saucers.

Annabeth sniggered. "Nice one, Seaweed Brain."

Percy smiled proudly. "Thanks!"

"Hey!" protested Piper, staring pointedly at Annabeth.

"I know, I know, not nice, but hey! I looked through your phone the other day, and you have _fourteen pictures_ of me and Percy cuddling or kissing. It's only fair he gets to keep that one."

Piper blushed and mumbled, "I guess so."

Annabeth grinned triumphantly at Percy and he grinned back at her.

Percy turned to face forward again and noticed Frank and Hazel talking quietly beside him.

"Ugh, I _really_ don't wanna go on this trip," whisper-whined Frank.

"I know, neither do I," replied Hazel in a hushed tone. "But it's for Leo. It's the least we can do after the poor guy died and came back to life. I know how it feels—and it's _weird._ "

"I guess," sighed Frank.

Hazel kissed him on the cheek. "It's only a few weeks. We'll get through it."

"Still," said Frank, "I'm worried for our sanity."

Hazel giggled quietly and turned Frank's head towards her, giving him a quick kiss on the lips. "What's that song called you were telling me about… 'I Will Survive' by Gloria Gaynor?… I got Leo to download it on my… Um, phone thing. We can listen to that and get ourselves through these horrible, _horrible_ times." She giggled again.

Frank laughed silently along with her.

Percy smiled to himself. They really did make a good couple. It seemed everyone was finally coming together—They were friends, they were couples, they were family.

Life after the war was certainly good… But he wondered how camping was going to turn out.

• • •

Percy must've fallen asleep, because it was almost nightfall when he was shoved awake by Grover. "Yo, Perce, wake up!" he bleated. Percy rubbed his eyes sleepily and looked out the back window.

They were there—the van was parked in a small forest clearing which was clearly a campsite.

 _Here goes nothing_ , he thought, and Annabeth opened the back doors to the van.

* * *

 **Sorry this chapter took so long to write and post... I haven't had a lot of spare time lately (thanks teachers). I can't guarantee when my next chapter will be posted, but hopefully it'll be sometime within a week.**

 **À bientôt!**

 **–ImpulsesOfLife**


	4. Tents, Lakes And Suns

**Hi please don't kill me for the really late update :| I'm still in school and since there's only a week left of it it's homework/test/quiz/finals madness… Anyways. I tried to write a teeny tiny bit of Solangelo, but I'm not too experienced with writing it so idk how it turned out; let me know if you liked it or if there's something I can do to improve writing that aspect of the story… Also this chapter switches POV like four times, so let me know if that's too many (it probably won't become a regular thing) or if it was fine. Also I feel like this chapter is slightly different from my other ones. So to sum that all up: Let me know how everything was!**

 **Disclaimer:**

 **PJO is Rick's**

 **This piece is just a fanfic**

 **Sadly, I own zip.**

 **A disclaimer haïku by me worthy of Apollo (which isn't saying a lot, no offence Apollo…)**

* * *

 **Frank's POV**

The van lurched to a halt and Frank sighed with relief. Percy had fallen asleep about four hours ago on Frank's shoulder, and he hadn't had the heart (or strength—because Mars almighty, Percy turned into a _rock_ while he slept) to shove him off.

Hazel was asleep with her head resting against Frank's other shoulder, but he didn't mind Hazel doing it (mostly because she was his girlfriend, she didn't weigh a tonne, she didn't snore like an elephant and she looked cute when she was asleep).

He gently prodded Hazel's shoulder, coaxing her awake, and Annabeth did the same to Percy. The two took their heads off Frank's shoulders and with all that extra weight removed Frank almost felt like he was flying.

He looked down at his left shoulder, the one Percy'd been leaning on, and wiped a bit of drool off his arm. Ew. It was one thing for Percy to lean on him, but it was a completely different thing for him to drool on Frank's arm, too.

Annabeth, who was sitting closest to the doors, opened them up and everyone starting piling out of the van, backpacks and duffel bags and—in the Stolls' case—oddly large suitcases in tow.

Frank looked around the clearing. It was a pretty decent size, enough to fit about ten tents and still have some extra room. The trees around the oval-shaped dirt area loomed tall overhead, dark green in colour and branches swaying slightly in the breeze. Closer to the ground there were ferns, ivy plants, small shrubs and berry bushes along with various other little plants Frank couldn't identify. A raven cawed, a nearby woodpecker started hammering its beak into a tree, and a bee zoomed past Frank's left ear, making him jump. Frank had always hated bees and wasps and hornets and those types of insects—so it probably wasn't the best idea for him to come camping, but he figured he'd get over it if he was going to have to spend three weeks among the bugs.

The last people out of the back of the van were Grover and Juniper (a green-skinned dryad with long, wavy mahogany hair who Frank had determined to be Grover's girlfriend) and Leo and Calypso hopped out of the front.

Leo had returned with Calypso a week and a half after the final battle at Camp Half-Blood had marked the end of the giant war, and it had been a joyous surprise for everyone (well, almost everyone—Frank still wasn't extremely fond of Leo, but he was still happy the poor guy hadn't up and died after all). Frank thought Percy had looked the most shocked to see Leo with Calypso, and Calypso had given him a look of—well, Frank couldn't identify exactly what emotion that look had conveyed, but it'd seemed like maybe concordance, recognition, or longing, possibly even regret. But then Leo had kissed Calypso on the cheek and introduced her as his girlfriend, and all traces of that look had been replaced with one of pure content. Clearly Percy and Calypso knew each other already, but Frank hadn't pried into it—it wasn't his business and because they weren't saying anything to each other, it was either a random moment that had no significance or something they didn't want to talk about.

Now, Calypso gave Leo a quick kiss on the lips and then pulled back with a smirk as she watched Leo's face contort into a pout. Frank watched as she leaned over and whispered something in Leo's ear. Leo's eyes widened and he scrambled into the back of the van where he started unpacking all the tents. Whatever Calypso had said to him, it'd certainly been motivational.

Hazel skipped up to him and looped her arm through his happily. "Hey," she chirped.

"Hey," Frank replied equally as happy, his mood finally brightening now that Hazel was content and he was free of shoulder heads.

The two of them walked over to a nearby picnic bench, arms intertwined and hands grasped together, and just sat there for a while. It was nice for Frank to just get some time to sit with Hazel in a care-free zone. It was nice not having to worry for once. And it was definitely nice watching Leo set up his tent for him.

• • •

 **Leo's POV**

Leo was in a mad rush to set up all the tents. There were nine of them and he only had sixty minutes, which meant he had less than ten minutes to set up each tent. But _why_ was Leo so anxious to set up all those tents by himself? Calypso had bribed him, whispering, "If you can get every single one of those nine tents you brought set up within the next hour, I'll play a _private_ game of Seven Minutes In Heaven with you in our tent." It'd probably been a farce to get Leo to do all the work himself, but hey, if there was even the _possibility_ of getting to kiss Calypso for seven minutes straight, Leo was going to set up all those tents as fast as his child of Hephaestus skills would let him.

"Time me!" yelled Leo to Calypso as he started dragging tents out of the van. He pulled them all to the edges of the clearing and positioned them around the oval at equal intervals, then pulled supplies out of the first tent bag and started assembling a tent.

Nine minutes later (according to Calypso), Leo was finished with Tent Number One. He had never assembled a tent before, but now he knew what to do so he was sure things would go much faster from that point on.

He finished the next three tents in twenty minutes, the next two in fourteen, and the two after that in thirteen. Leo was now down to the last tent, and he only had four minutes on the clock to set it up. He whipped all the supplies out of the bag in lightning speed and started shoving all the parts together the right way. He fought back the feeling he was getting that soon he'd spontaneously combust, jammed and tied more parts together, hammered the last pegs into the ground and stepped back, wiping the sweat from his brow. Leo was _exhausted._ To think, Calypso had made him do all that work just by offering to kiss him. _Never again,_ thought Leo to himself. After all, Calypso was his girlfriend—they kissed all the time. He felt pretty naïve.

"How many minutes left?" called Leo, walking over to Calypso.

She smiled at him, eyes twinkling. "That was amazing. You still have forty-seven seconds."

Leo beamed. "Sweet! Supreme Commander Valdez does it again." Calypso slapped him playfully on the arm. She still looked really happy, which made Leo happy, too.

"So," grinned Calypso. "Which tent's ours?"

Leo's eyes widened a teeny bit but he quickly returned them to normal. So Calypso _hadn't_ tricked him (yay!).

"This one," replied Leo, leading her towards the tent in the oval farthest away from where the rest of their friends were talking. Halfway there, he asked Calypso to wait a sec and ran to the van to grab a couple sleeping bags. He jogged back to her and they continued towards the tent. Leo unzipped the entrance, took off his shoes and stepped inside the little space, pulling the sleeping bags out of their casings and laying them down on the ground.

"There," he said triumphantly, flopping down on his sleeping bag. Just another working day in the life of Leo Valdez.

• • •

 **Calypso's POV**

Calypso followed Leo into the little tent he'd picked out for them. She had to admit, she was a bit surprised Leo had actually managed to set up all the tents in an hour—Calypso had planned this out with a bit of research, and it took most mortals an hour to set up a single tent. Her crazy-but-loveable boyfriend had set up _nine_ in an hour. She decided it'd be extremely rude _not_ to play Seven Minutes In Heaven with Leo… Plus, she maybe sort of kind of wanted to kiss him too.

Calypso grinned as Leo flopped down onto a sleeping bag, and she herself dropped onto the one next to him.

"So…" said Leo. Calypso knew what was coming next. "How about that Seven Minutes In—mph!" Calypso rolled on top of Leo and kissed him, effectively shutting him up in the middle of his sentence. How long had it been since they'd kissed like this, alone? They hadn't, not really.

Calypso stuck her tongue into Leo's mouth, and when she took it back out he stuck his tongue into her mouth. She pulled away from his lips and kissed his angular jawline, down his neck, along his collarbone…

Leo groaned and Calypso kissed his lips again for a few more minutes before pulling away. They looked at each other for a moment and then Calypso blurted out, "I love you, Leo Valdez."

Leo looked shocked but he pulled her into a giant hug and whispered, "I love you, too, Calypso."

She was glad she'd spoken, because Calypso truly thought Leo was the lover she'd been waiting for all those years on Ogygia.

• • •

 **Nico's POV**

Nico hopped out of the van, groaning and trying to rub the sunlight out of his eyes. He wasn't enthused about camping, but at least Will—wait. Nico didn't care that Will was here. He didn't even _like_ him… Or did he? Back at camp, he'd been hanging out with Will in the infirmary almost every day, and Nico's slight crush on him was slowly blossoming into something more than just a crush. Now, he thought he loved Will more than he used to like Percy (however, he'd never admit _that_ to another living soul). But Will probably didn't love him back…

Nico dragged himself and his black backpack over to where Will was talking with the Stoll brothers, Rachel Elizabeth Dare and Katie Gardener. Will smiled at Nico when he saw him.

"Hey, there you are," he greeted. "What took you so long to get out of the van?"

Nico groaned and closed his eyes, shivering. "Too much sunlight. I'm dying."

Will smirked. "You _do_ realize I'm practically the _son_ of sunlight, right, Neeks?"

Nico glared at him. "Of course I realize that. And don't call me _Neeks._ "

"Sure thing, Neeks." Nico stared at him murderously and Will put his hands up. "I know, I know, no Neeks. But you still need a nickname. What about 'The Grim Reaper'?"

"No."

"Death Breath?"

"No."

" _Corpse_ Breath."

" _No._ "

"Fine then. How about the ever-popular—and certainly true—'Ghost King'?"

"For the love of Hades, Will, just call me Nico like a normal person," vented Nico exasperatedly.

"Ghost King it is!" cried Will gleefully, winking at Nico and running off. "I'll be back soon, just gonna go for a swim and see if there's anything actually fun to do around here!"

Nico rolled his eyes and turned back to Travis, Connor, Katie and Rachel. "So."

Nico watched as Travis nudged Connor and whispered in his ear, "Twenty drachmas on it." Connor whispered back, "You're on," and the two started sniggering but stopped when they noticed Nico staring at them questioningly. Connor coughed into his arm and Travis stood up a little straighter. "Um, we're betting on who'll be the first to complain about the trip," said Travis quickly, keeping a poker face. Nico studied him suspiciously but kept quiet. He'd probably find out the true means of their bet soon enough.

Katie smacked Travis's arm and muttered, "No more bets on it," but Travis shook his head and muttered back, "I just know it's gonna happen. I can't loose a good drachma-earning opportunity like this," and Katie crossed her arms with a sigh.

"Fine. Just don't hurt anyone." Katie stalked off to go talk to… Someone. Nico assumed she'd go to Annabeth, but he didn't see her or Percy anywhere, so he had no clue where she'd go.

Just then, Will came back sopping wet and shirtless. Nico tried hard not to stare at his abs. Gods, who knew a doctor could be that _toned_?

"Guys, the lake is _awesome_!" exclaimed Will.

"You've only been gone for two minutes," replied Nico impertinently.

"Which gave me exactly enough time to run to the lake, cannonball into the water, climb back out and run back to tell you the water's awesome."

"The water's awesome?" called a hopeful voice. Nico turned around to see Percy's head poking out of a tent.

" _Super_ awesome!" affirmed Will.

"Sweet!" called Percy, unzipping the tent.

"Percy!" shrieked Annabeth from behind him. Percy's eyes widened. "Oh, right, hold on Will!" he called with a grimace, popping back inside the tent and zipping it up behind him.

"Perseus Jackson!" Nico heard Annabeth hiss from inside. "I'm wearing a _bra._ You can't just open the tent door wide enough for everyone to see when I don't even have a shirt on!"

"Sorry," mumbled Percy. "Wanna get changed into your swimsuit and come swimming with me?"

"Fine," muttered Annabeth. "Just give me a sec."

A few minutes later, Percy and Annabeth emerged, Percy wearing dark turquoise board shorts and Annabeth wearing a white bikini top and jean shorts.

Will pumped his fist in the air. "Great! Let's go!"

Nico grimaced as Will pulled him along. "I'm not even wearing a bathing suit," muttered Nico. "I didn't even bring a bathing suit. Heck, I don't even _own_ a bathing suit."

" _What_?" gasped Percy with a scandalized expression on his face. "Stay right there." He jogged back to his tent and came back out a few minutes later with a pair of plain black swim trunks in hand. He threw them at Nico. "Here. You can put them on when we get to the lake."

"Thanks," sighed Nico, not really wanting to go swimming but really just wanting to hang out with Will. He followed Annabeth and an over-excited Will and Percy down to the lake's shore. Once they got there, Annabeth pulled off her jean shorts, Will set down the picnic basket he'd brought with them and all three jumped in. Nico headed off into the trees where he looked around to make sure no one was nearby before stripping down out of his clothes and slipping on the black swim trunks. They were a bit too big (they _were_ Percy's, and he was a few years older than Nico) but Nico just tied the string at the waist extra tight, triple-knotted it, and hoped for the best.

Nico wandered down to the lake, and as soon as Will saw him, he whistled. "Nice abs, Nico! You'd never know you even have them, because you look so scrawny and pale and deathly all the time—" Nico glared at him for that one, "—but you definitely do!"

"I could say the same about you," noted Nico, thinking about Will's surprise doctor abs.

"Yeah, yeah yeah, enough muscle talk for now…" said Will.

"Yeah," agreed Percy, "Because we _all_ know I win this battle."

Nico and Will glared at Percy. Nico prepared to raise an angry skeleton to send clattering into the water after Percy, but before he could do so, Percy raised his arms with a smirk, sending a wave towards Nico. It blasted him in the back and swept him up. Nico flailed around helplessly as the water deposited him in the water between Percy and Will.

"'Sup," nodded Will. He was wearing black aviator sunglasses and to Nico, he looked a lot like Apollo. (Or in other words… Hot.)

"Whatever," grumbled Nico. The water was cool and clear. As much as he hated to admit it, Nico actually felt at ease for once.

Well, he _had_ been at ease until another huge, unexpected wave smacked into his body. When Nico surfaced, sputtering water, he glared at the culprit: Percy.

He scanned his surroundings and noticed Will (who was now sunglasses-less) also glaring, and Annabeth giving her boyfriend an _enormous_ glare. Percy grinned sheepishly.

"Perseus Jackson," said Annabeth for the second time that day in a dangerously calm tone of voice. "Please tell me why you just did that."

Percy blushed awkwardly. He looked freaked out. Nico still found it weird that the guy had been to Tartarus and back, yet Annabeth was the only thing that really scared him.

"Um… Because it seemed like fun?" squeaked Percy. Then he found his confidence and manned up. "Why… You got a problem with it, Wise Girl?"

Annabeth narrowed her eyes at Percy but then smirked. "Nope. I say we have a water fight—but _no powers_. Because that would mean a huge, unfair advantage for you, Seaweed Brain."

"Sure. You're on," replied Percy. The two proceeded to splash each other, getting closer and closer until they were nearly smacking one another in the face. Suddenly Percy stopped splashing and Annabeth stopped, too, confused.

"What is it?" she questioned. Percy smiled. "I love you," he said like he meant it, and kissed Annabeth on the lips. She immediately kissed him back.

Nico felt a twinge of jealousy. It wasn't that he still liked Percy—he was _well_ past Percy—but it was because he wanted a relationship like that. Where he was best friends with his significant other, but they loved each other to death. Where they could trust each other so much that they'd put their lives and the fate of the world in the other's hands. Where he was happy to be in the relationship, always. He needed a sun to revolve around, someone he could live for like Percy lived for Annabeth.

Nico prayed to the gods that Will would be his sun.

* * *

 **Good? Bad? I sort of had writer's block, so not sure how good it turned out... Hopefully not bad... Anyways, summer's soon and updates should come more frequently then :)**

 **–ImpulsesOfLife**


	5. The Joys Of Camping Food

**A/N: My last day of school was last Thursday! ;D I wrote most of this in math class—we got free time in the computer lab…and I immediately went on FF :)**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO; it all belongs to the one and only Rick Riordan. I also don't own Frozen. (And I get that Frozen's just annoying now for most people—including me—but it was a random idea I got so I just went with the flow.)**

* * *

 **Percy's POV**

Percy came back from swimming with Annabeth, Will and Nico feeling clean and revived. The water had that effect on him: Calming Percy when he was worried, cooling him down when he was mad, or simply just brightening his mood.

It was about seven o'clock at night according to Annabeth's fancy digital watch (birthday gift courtesy of her dad, Frederick, and stepmom, Helen) and as they walked back into the ring of tents, Leo declared it was time for dinner. Percy wondered what they were going to have. At this point, he was so hungry he honestly didn't care what Leo was cooking. He'd even eat another Jack-In-The-Crack burrito—which _really_ proved he wasn't kidding about his hunger. He hadn't eaten since five-thirty that morning, and although water revived him and made his senses stronger, it also made him more aware of the food he was lacking... Or in other words, it just made him hungrier.

"Okay!" called Leo. "Assemble, my colleagues!" He sounded like an old, knowledgable teacher. Percy resisted the urge to roll his eyes. As if anyone believed the "I'm super smart" façade—they'd all had their adventures with Leo, and though he was a great mechanic, Percy couldn't confidently say he thought Leo was very smart. Although... Most people thought Percy was dumb, which he wasn't, so maybe Leo had the same problem.

"What are we having for dinner?" grumbled Nico. "I'm starving."

"Me too," added Percy.

"Hot dogs!" said Leo.

"Oh," frowned Nico.

"What?" replied Leo offendedly. "Hot dogs are a camping staple!"

Thalia sniggered and looked over at Jason. " _Staple._ "

Jason blushed and Piper and Leo snickered quietly to themselves, too. _Huh,_ thought Percy, _For once I'm on the outside of an inside joke._

"I don't like hot dogs," said Nico, re-focusing them.

"Well, suck it up and eat one, Ghost King, because that's what's for dinner," said Will carelessly.

"I can even make you one that's extra-burnt, so it's black. You know, the colour of the Underworld and death and stuff? More appealing to a son of—" Leo got cut off by Nico and his famous death glare. He'd been doing a lot of those lately.

"Just because I'm a son of Hades, _Leo_ , does not mean I like my food _burnt_ ," growled Nico. "Jeez. Would you like me to give you a _flaming_ hot dog?"

Leo scoffed at him. "Of course not! We know the outside of me's flame-proof, but I have no clue about the inside... And we wouldn't want to ruin my _surely_ perfect organs, now would we, di Angelo?"

"Whatever," muttered Nico. "See you guys later."

He walked to the edge of the tent ring and stepped into the shadow of a tree in the sunset. Percy realized too late what he was doing.

"Nico, no!" he cried. "Where are you going? If you're getting McDonald's, at least buy me some McNuggets!" He ran towards Nico but the son of Hades smirked and disappeared, calling, "You guys are the ones who wanted hot dogs!" as he faded into the shadows.

Percy pouted and walked back to the group in the middle of the oval. He wished he could shadow travel like Nico could, or even fly like Jason. Either of those abilities would get him to the nearest McDonald's fast. Percy couldn't exactly ride a wave up to a fast food restaurant.

Annabeth grabbed his hand and squeezed it as he stopped beside her. Percy grinned a tiny grin down at her.

"Don't pout. Fast food is horrible for you," she scolded. "Even though you look extremely cute when you're pouting." Percy could've sworn he'd imagined that last part, it was so quiet, except he saw Annabeth's lips move slightly. He nudged her with his elbow and grinned mischievously.

"What was that, Annabeth?" he asked innocently.

She blushed. "I said 'Don't pout, fast food is horrible for you,'" she said, also rather innocently. Trying to play it off like she didn't add anything else.

"No, no, the part after that," encouraged Percy deviously.

"I didn't say anything after that, Seaweed Brain. Get your hearing checked."

"Mhm," he murmured. "Well, _I_ think you said—"

Annabeth jumped on top of him and shoved her hand over his mouth, cutting him off. "Don't you _dare_ speak," she whisper-warned. She didn't look too mad, but Percy decided not to push it.

"Fine," he whispered back huffily. Then he added a bit louder, to try and put up a façade for their audience, "Must've imagined it."

Annabeth stood triumphantly. She looked proud of herself. Percy thought she looked beautiful when she was prideful.

"Who wants to get the dogs from the purple cooler in the van?" called Leo. No one spoke.

"Shotty not it!" called Percy, dropping to one knee and putting his finger on his nose.

"Shotty not it!" repeated everyone else as fast as they could. Everyone dropped to the ground with their fingers held against their noses. Hazel was left standing, looking extremely confused. "Um...?" she stammered.

Percy stood up and grinned. "It's a game. Last person to kneel, touch their nose and call 'Shotty not it' has to do the thing no one wants to do."

"Oh," said Hazel, understanding. " _Oh._ Schist. So I have to grab the hot dogs?"

"Yup," replied Percy. "Sorry."

"It's fine," said Hazel, breezing off towards the van. "How many should I grab?"

"Well, there's sixteen of us eating..." pondered Leo, "But pretty much all of us eat like pigs." No one said anything otherwise. Percy definitely didn't disagree. Being an ADHD demigod had its perks—he was always active and could eat as much as he liked without gaining an ounce.

"So grab at least thirty," Leo concluded.

"Gods, I can't carry thirty hot dogs," stammered Hazel.

"Three loads, then," advised Leo.

Frank rolled his eyes. "I'll help." Hazel smiled happily and they walked off to the van to retrieve the hot dogs.

Leo turned to face the rest of them. "Well. I forgot to mention one little detail. Hazel and Frank are getting the hot dogs, but if you want to sit somewhere, you have to go grab a fold-out chair from the van yourself."

Percy shrugged and jogged off to the van. He'd heard Leo rambling on and on about packing all the 'necessary' supplies—demigod modified, of course—so he knew the chairs were in little packs and that the chairs expanded magically out of those packs when you unzipped them. The concept was kind of like Leo's tool belt.

He grabbed two chair packs, one for himself and one for Annabeth, waved hi and bye to Frank and Hazel, who were loading their arms up with hot dogs, and jogged back to the ring of tents. He didn't start panting but the heat was so bad he broke into a bit of a sweat. Good thing he was still shirtless from swimming—sweat marks would be embarrassing.

"Here," he said to Annabeth, holding out a chair pack. "Thanks, Seaweed Brain," she said, accepting the chair and unzipping it. She dropped the bag on the ground as the chair expanded out of it. "Cool," she said appreciatively. "I wonder how Leo did this."

"Mhm," agreed Percy, unzipping his own chair pack and watching it grow out of the bag.

They positioned their chairs around the giant, metal-enclosed campfire space and watched as Leo came back with an armful of firewood, positioned it carefully inside the enclosed space and lit a glowing orange and red blaze with his fingertips.

Hazel and Frank each came back with several packages of hot dogs loaded up in their arms and dropped them on the ground. "There," breathed Hazel, straightening her shirt.

"Great," said Leo. "Now go and get the roasting sticks."

"Um, I might've missed them, but I'm pretty sure I didn't see any roasting sticks in that van," said Frank slightly worriedly.

Leo's eyes widened. "Styx! I forgot them. Can you just go collect a bunch of sticks from the woods then? Preferably smooth ones that don't have dirt or moss or bird poo on them?"

Frank glared at Leo but muttered, "Fine," and headed into the woods, Hazel trailing along behind him.

"And hurry!" yelled Leo.

"Yeah, yeah!" replied Frank.

Annabeth tapped him on the shoulder. "I'll be right back," she said. "Just going to get a drink from the van coolers. You want anything?"

"Sure," said Percy with a nod. "I'll come with you."

The two of them walked hand-in-hand down the way to the van, which was now closed. Leo had, luckily, declared that it would just stay unlocked for the whole trip, so any of them could access its supplies at any given time without having to bother Leo for the keys.

Percy pulled open the back doors and the two of them hopped inside.

"Uh… You know which one has the drinks?" asked Percy. There had to be at least twenty ginormous coolers in the van. The van itself was also ginormous—probably bigger than a bus.

"I _think_ Leo said the orange one…" muttered Annabeth uncertainly. She walked over to an orange cooler and popped open its white top to look at the contents.

"Um, no," she said with a frown. "Look."

Percy peered inside the cooler to find it full of weird yellow-and-red bags with the words _Fonzies — Gli Originali_ printed onto them in white bubble letters.

"Fonzies?" demanded Annabeth in disbelief. "Those stupid Italien chip-cheesy-whatever things that Leo was eating his weight in on the _Argo II_?"

"Huh. Yup, those are _the_ Fonzies."

"Clearly he never got over _that_ obsession," stated Annabeth, raising her eyebrows and slowly re-closing the cooler's lid.

"Clearly not," agreed Percy.

Annabeth moved on to a new cooler. "Maybe he said red and not orange… Hm…" She walked up to a red cooler and opened up the lid to reveal bottles of water and Gatorade, cans of soda and juice and, much to Percy's disbelief, a bottle of expensive-looking champagne.

"Leo brought _champagne_?" squeaked Annabeth.

"Oh gods," muttered Percy. "Kill me now before we have to deal with a drunken Leo."

Annabeth sighed and reached for a can of Nestea. Percy grabbed a bottle of blue Gatorade. They re-shut the cooler's lid and then the van doors when they exited it, and headed back to their camp chairs.

A couple seconds after they sat down, Hazel and Frank emerged with sticks in their arms. There was a rotting, gnarly-looking stick on top of Frank's pile that had moss growing from one end and a massive bird poo on the other.

Frank dropped it beside Leo. "Here you go," he said pleasantly. "There were no more good sticks, so I figured you'd be fine with this one."

Leo glared at him and hurled the stick back into the forest. "Ha, ha, ha. Very funny, Zhang. But I'll just use my fingers."

Leo opened up a package of hot dogs and stuffed one on to the tip of his finger.

Percy grabbed a stick and the rest of Leo's hot dog pack. There were four left, and he slid them all on to his stick and set it to cook over the campfire. He rotated the stick slowly and Annabeth placed her stick, which held two hot dogs, beside his over the fire.

After a few minutes, Percy pulled his hot dogs off the fire and poked one.

He turned to Annabeth questioningly. "Are they done?"

She rolled her eyes playfully at him. "Do they _look_ done, Seaweed Brain?"

"Um…" Percy stared at his slightly slimy-looking, light brown hot dogs. "No…"

"Then no," she stated simply, turning her hot dog stick.

"Oh." Percy replaced his hot dogs over the fire and waited for them to finish cooking. Finally, after about five more minutes of stick-turning, his hot dogs had some black char marks, were a deep brown in colour and—thankfully—looked done. Percy took his stick off the fire and peered at Leo.

"Hey, Leo," he called, "Any buns?"

"Oh!" said Leo, snapping his fingers. "Down at the van."

Leo looked meaningfully at Jason, who'd just taken a seat between him and Piper.

"No way, man, get them yourself," protested Jason, crossing his arms.

"But you can _fly_!" cried Leo.

"For the love of Zeus," said Jason, putting his arms up in a _Why me?_ gesture. Nevertheless, he summoned the winds and rode them down to the van. He was back within twenty seconds.

"Was that so hard?" questioned Leo cheekily.

"Shut up," retorted Jason, throwing a sack of buns at him.

He tossed another to Percy, and he nodded at him. "Thanks."

Percy opened up the bag and pulled out four buns, spreading them across his knees. He pulled hot dogs off the stick and placed them into buns. In no time, he had a row of perfect-looking campfire hot dogs.

Percy dug in as Annabeth began assembling her own hot dogs beside him. He was already done two before she'd placed hers in their buns. He finished the other two as Annabeth bit into her first one.

"That was great. Now what's for dinner?" he asked.

Frank looked at him like he was crazy. "Um. That _was_ dinner."

"Dude," replied Percy, "I was joking."

"Oh." Frank blushed and Percy felt kind of bad, but come on. He wasn't _dumb._ He was honestly kind of offended Frank hadn't realized he was kidding.

Everyone had set up their chairs around the campfire by then, and they were passing around the hot dogs and roasting them on sticks. Percy was the only one finished, but he noticed Jason quickly working his way through his third.

Just then, Percy sensed movement behind him and in lightening speed, pulled Riptide out of his pocket, uncapped his sword into existence and whipped around to find… Nico. Riptide swiped right over Nico's head. Good thing he was so short—had Nico been taller, Percy would've decapitated him.

"Nico!" yelped Percy.

"Hey!" yelled Nico. "Watch it! You could've impaled my Happy Meal! Or cut off my head! Or—"

"Jeez. Sorry. But um… Did you get me some McNuggets?"

"No! What do you think I am, your personal servant?"

Percy made a face at him and turned back towards the campfire. "You could've just said 'No, I'm sorry,' you know."

"I know."

Percy rolled his eyes and turned to Annabeth with his eyes twinkling. "S'mores?" he asked hopefully. At camp, they used to have s'mores all the time before the wars. But afterwards… Well, no one was really that cheerful, even if they _had_ just won and survived two wars. There had been a lot of losses in the past five years. So they'd stopped having s'mores, the Apollo campers had stopped whistling cheerfully everywhere they went, and the Ares campers had been extra-mean lately.

Annabeth put the last bite of her hot dog in her mouth and held up her pointer finger in a _Hold on_ gesture as she chewed. She finally swallowed her food and smiled. "S'mores."

"Yes!" cried Percy, fist-pumping the air.

Annabeth grinned wider and they retrieved the s'mores supplies from the van. Percy opened up the bin they'd grabbed and pulled out bags of squishy white marshmallows, bars of milk chocolate and boxes of Honey Maid graham crackers.

Annabeth grabbed a bag of marshmallows and tore it open, pulling out one and sliding it onto her stick. Percy did the same. Then he extended his stick arm out and rotated his marshmallow over the flames.

After a couple minutes it was looking a deep golden brown colour, so Percy pulled it off the fire and poked it—which was probably a stupid idea, because the gooey marshmallow was smoking hot.

"Ouch," Annabeth hissed beside him. She must've poked hers too. The marshmallows were very deceiving—all fluffy and perfect—but when you pulled them off, the molten white marshmallow encased in its fragile golden outer shell was so hot it could probably burn you.

Percy leaned his stick up against the arm of his chair, taking care in assuring the marshmallow wasn't sticking out towards anyone in a murderous way. Then he opened up a box of graham crackers and unwrapped a chocolate bar. He pulled out two graham crackers and handed the box over to Annabeth, then broke off a square of chocolate and handed her the bar, too. Percy placed his chocolate on a graham cracker and then very gingerly slid his marshmallow off his stick.

"Success," he whispered as he pulled off a perfect-looking marshmallow. Annabeth groaned beside him.

"What?" asked Percy, looking over at her. Annabeth's hands were covered in marshmallow goop and her marshmallow itself had… Collapsed, sort of. It was smeared oddly on top of her chocolate and graham cracker.

Percy cracked a smile. "Troubles, bubbles?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes at him and gestured to the mini mess she'd made. "What do _you_ think?"

Percy laughed and placed her other graham cracker on top of her messy s'more for her. Then he took it.

"Hey!" protested Annabeth. "Making that was hard work!"

Percy grinned at her and handed her his own s'more. "You can have my masterpiece instead."

"Percy, don't be ridiculous. Just give me my s'more back."

"No."

"Percy. Give it to me."

"Wise Girl, just eat mine. I make them perfect every time. I can deal with one poorly executed s'more."

"Are you calling my s'more 'poorly executed'?"

"Of course not. Now just eat the s'more."

Percy took a big bite out of Annabeth's s'more before she could protest any more. She rolled her eyes at him and took a bite of his, too. Percy watched her eyes widen in surprise as she chewed and he grinned.

"Good?"

Annabeth smiled and nodded towards him with respect. "I had no idea you could make a good s'more."

"Well, me and my mom used to make them all the time when we'd vacation in Montauk. I'm actually surprised you don't know how to make a good s'more, considering you've spent over half your life at camp."

"Yeah," replied Annabeth, "I'm not so much of a cook. Or food person. Or an anything-related-to-nutrition expert. I even make horrible _sandwiches_. Luke used to help me with s'mores… And then after the Titan war, Malcolm helped me, and after that… Well, I haven't actually had one since before Hera took you, I guess."

"Hm," replied Percy with a grin. "Remind me to teach you how to cook sometime."

"Mm," she replied with a mouthful of s'more. "We don't cook at camp…"

Percy blushed. "Well, you know, in New Rome…"

Annabeth swallowed her s'more and smiled. "Right. Yeah. New Rome. I can't wait to spend some time there with you. When we were there together before Leo fired that ballistae, what I saw of it looked _amazing_."

Percy grinned. "It _is_ amazing. When I saw they had a city for demigods, a place where we could live in peace and go to college and live a monster-free life for a while… I thought it'd be perfect for us. _Finally_ , we won't have to worry about monsters or evil dirt faces!"

Annabeth grinned back. "I know. It'll definitely be something different…"

Percy nodded thoughtfully and they drifted into a comfortable silence.

For the next couple hours, they listened to Leo telling stupid ghost stories, Jason revealing some things about his old life at Camp Jupiter, Thalia sharing tales about little pre-Camp Jupiter Jason, and Grover complaining about how obviously in love with Annabeth Percy had been and how hard Annabeth had tried to hide her crush on Percy in the beginning. Percy blushed like mad during that part. He hadn't thought his crush on Annabeth had been _that_ obvious… And clearly Annabeth had thought she'd hid her own crush on him pretty well. Turned out they'd _both_ been wrong about that, because Grover had known about their love/hate relationship (which was mostly love in disguise) ever since it'd developed. Dang satyrs and their ability to sense emotions.

Finally, once the sun had set, the moon had risen and all the many, many stars were shining in the sky, the first person announced they were going to bed.

Hazel yawned in her chair. "Well, I'm going to bed now," she said quietly, standing up tiredly and pulling down the sleeves of her Camp Jupiter sweatshirt. _No fair_ , thought Percy. _I wish Camp Half-Blood sold sweatshirts. Those are super cool._

Frank stood up too and grabbed Hazel's hand. "I guess I'm done for the day, too," he agreed.

Hazel headed over to the tent she'd be sharing with Frank. "Goodnight, guys," she called.

"Goodnight," repeated Frank.

"G'night!" called Leo, waving over-enthusiastically. "Don't let the bedbugs bite!"

"Bedbugs?" questioned Hazel.

Frank ushered her into the tent and zipped it closed.

Katie Gardener stood up and stretched her arms above her head. "I think I'll go to bed too," she announced, heading over to a tent and unzipping it slowly and lazily. Travis bounded out of his chair and ran up to Katie.

"Same," he called, jumping up and hopping into the tent behind her. He winked at everyone around the campfire and zipped up the opening before Katie could protest about sharing a tent with him.

There were still thirteen demigods around the fire.

"So…" said Grover.

"Now what?" finished Percy.

Jason shrugged. Piper and Annabeth stood up at the same time and when they noticed, grinned at each other.

"We're—" started Annabeth.

"Going to bed," finished Piper.

"'Kay," said Jason. "If I don't come into the tent soon, then goodnight, and see you tomorrow, Pipes."

"Same," said Percy to Annabeth. "'Night, Wise Girl."

"Goodnight, Seaweed Brain," replied Annabeth.

"See you in the morning, Sparky," called Piper good-naturedly.

"Don't call me Sparky," replied Jason playfully.

Piper shrugged and disappeared into her and Jason's tent. Annabeth waved at Percy and climbed into their tent.

For the most part, everyone sort of dispersed after that—over the next half hour or so, Calypso, Connor, Nico, Will, Thalia, Grover, Juniper, and Rachel all retreated into their tents. Soon it was just Percy, Jason and Leo left around the campfire.

"So," said Jason seriously. "I've been meaning to talk to you guys about something."

"What is it?" asked Leo excitedly. "Are you proposing to Piper? Holy Zeus, Jason, you're only sixteen! Maybe you should wait—"

" _No,_ you idiot. I'm not _proposing_! That'll come in time. Like, a _lot_ of time. As in five years."

"Oh," said Leo. He looked disappointed. Percy was already having trouble containing his laughter, but he still wondered why Jason was being so serious.

" _Anyways_ ," continued Jason, "I've been having some…Ah, _difficulties_ …Er, around Piper. I mean… You know. Um… Like… I love her and stuff, and uh… My body… Oh, gods dammit! Do you get what I'm trying to say?" asked Jason in embarrassed frustration.

Percy was trying so hard not to laugh, he was literally in pain. "Jason, bro," he wheezed, trying not to laugh super hard—because clearly Jason needed the emotional support. "Are you trying to tell us you get hard around Piper? Because if you are, dude, then just say it!"

Percy couldn't hold in his laughter anymore, and clearly neither could Leo, because the two of them burst out into laughing fits, gasping for breath. Percy looked at Jason out of the corner of his eye. The poor guy was blushing such a deep shade of red you'd think he'd gotten into Rachel's acrylic paints or something.

"Shut up!" hissed Jason nervously.

"It's fine," gasped Percy, wiping a tear from his eye. "Just… Just… Bro. We _all_ love our girlfriends. Just don't stare at her like that! Look at her face."

"But how do you _do_ it?" demanded Jason in frustration. "Even when I'm looking at her face… She's just beautiful! As beautiful as Annabeth and Calypso are to you guys! How do you _survive_?"

"Jason," said Leo in mock seriousness. "Don't let them in, don't let them see. Be the good girl you always have to be. Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know—Well, now they know…" He finished, speaking the lyrics to Idina Menzel's "Let It Go" in a monotone voice that made Percy want to laugh out loud. He took Leo trailing off as an opening for himself to sing.

"Let it go! Let it go! Can't hold it back anymore!" sang Percy loudly and dramatically, following Leo's lead.

Jason and Leo gaped at him.

"What?" demanded Percy.

"Dude, you can _sing_!" whooped Leo.

"Really?" he asked, pretty shocked. No one had ever told him he was a good singer. He filed that little tidbit of information away in his mind for later usage.

"Yeah!" Jason assured him.

"Well then," said Percy. "Let it go! Let it gooo! Turn away and slam the doooor!"

"I don't care what they're going to saaay!" wailed Leo in an incredibly loud voice. "Let the storm rage oooonnn… The cold never bothered me anyway!"

"It's funny how some distance… Makes everything seem small. And the fears that once controlled me, can't get to me at aaaaallllll!" continued Percy.

He nudged Jason. "Bro, your turn!"

"No way!" grumbled Jason.

"Come on," coaxed Percy. "You can't just leave us hanging in the middle of the song!"

"But I don't even know the lyrics!" protested Jason.

"Oh please, of course you do! _Everyone_ knows the lyrics to this stupidly annoying song," remarked Percy, speaking nothing but the truth.

"Fine," muttered Jason. " _Ugh_. It's time to see what I can do, to test the limits and break _through_! No right, no wrong, no rules for me… I'm freeeeee!"

"YES!" cried Leo.

"What?" questioned Percy.

"I made a bet with Connor that I could get Jason to sing on this trip!"

"But _you_ didn't get him to sing," said Percy arrogantly. " _I_ did."

"Same difference!" replied Leo. "Jason, keep singing! And pour in the passion!"

Leo took out a tiny little video camera and started taping Jason as he sang on.

"Let it go! Let it go! I am one with the wind and skyyyy! Let it go! Let it go! You'll never seeee me cryyyy! Here I stand, and here I'll stay. Let the storm rage oooonnn…" Jason took a deep breath. "The cold never bothered me anyway." He whipped his jacket closed and raised his head haughtily. Then he stomped off to his and Piper's tent, called, "See you in the morning!" and disappeared inside the little space.

"Sweet!" hollered Leo.

"I know!" cried Percy, laughing. "Who knew Jason could be so sassy when he's not all, I-Am-The-Serious-And-Superior-Jason-Grace-Former-Praetor-Of-New-Rome?"

"'Serious-And-Superior-Jason-Grace-Former-Praetor-Of-New-Rome'?" asked Leo, one eyebrow raised.

"Well yeah!" replied Percy. "Isn't that how he always acts?"

"You're right," laughed Leo.

Just then, they heard the unzipping of a tent and Annabeth came stomping towards them in pyjama pants and a bulky sweatshirt. "Can you guys shut up?" she asked angrily, like a bear who'd just been woken out of hibernation.

"Sure, babe!" replied Percy.

"Are you okay?" asked Annabeth concernedly.

"Uh… Yeah. Why?"

"Because you called me _babe_. You _never_ call me babe."

"Oh."

"Yeah, _oh._ You're marshmallow-drunk or something. Just get in the tent, be quiet and go to sleep."

"'Kay," murmured Percy sleepily. "'Night, Leo."

"'Night, Perce!" replied Leo, heading into his own tent.

Percy followed Annabeth into their tent and flopped down on his sleeping bag as she zipped the door closed. He was suddenly feeling extremely tired and was grateful Annabeth had brought him inside from that nightmare of a scene. Had they seriously just sung _Let It Go_ together? Percy _hated_ that song. Frozen was the worst Disney movie of all the Disney movies (mostly because of the planet's overkill obsession of the movie and its songs). He'd much rather watch something sea-related... _The Little Mermaid_ , for example.

Gods, maybe he _was_ marshmallow-drunk.

"'Night, Annabeth," he called tiredly.

"Goodnight, Percy," replied Annabeth.

And just like that, Percy drifted off into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

* * *

 **Pretty long, but sorta uneventful. Also I feel like this chapter had a more... _mature_ feel. Actually, it seemed like some parts were mature for my style of writing and other parts were really _im_ mature. Different than usual, I guess. It was also my longest chapter yet at approximately 5,000 words! Hopefully it was still okay! :)**

 **–ImpulsesOfLife**


	6. The Nightmares Return

**A/N: Hi guys. This chapter has a completely different feel to it. I wasn't exactly sure where I wanted to go with this story (I didn't make a plot line, I literally just got an idea, posted Chapter 1 and have been winging it ever since!) but I think what happens next will sort of be the foundation for the rest of the plot (so hopefully I don't screw it up! ;) Also, this chapter's more… I guess you could say dramatic :o**

 **EDIT: This only lasts 3 chapters, so if you decide you don't like the whole drama/near death thing, feel free to skip to chapter 9.**

 **Disclaimer: It's all Rick's.**

* * *

 **Annabeth's POV**

According to her silver birthday watch, it was two a.m. when Percy and Leo finally shut up and went to bed. Annabeth was elated to finally get some sleep (she'd been lying in her tent for the past two hours, wide awake and listening to the boys talk without having enough energy to not-so-kindly tell them to be quiet or she'd shove their roasting sticks where the sun didn't shine). But unfortunately, when she finally drifted off into what she'd _hoped_ would be a blissful good rest-of-the-night's sleep, all that ensued was a nasty nightmare.

She was standing at the edge of a cliff outlooking a gorgeous grove of pine trees. The grove was unlike any other forest or natural area she'd ever seen. The trees were a brilliant shade of green and looked much taller than your average pines. They were shaped very oddly, too—their branches were gnarled and twisted, and weaved in and out of each other, forming weird formations like a maze of tree branches. It was sort of scary. Raw nature.

Winding around the pines was a thin, glittering stream. Almost immediately after laying eyes on the stream, Annabeth knew something was off. The water burbled along quickly and, oddly, quietly. The stream was incredibly long—it stretched farther than her eyes could see—so even from this height, she should've been able to hear the faint murmur of the water flowing down in the little stream.

But everything was quiet.

The wind whipped Annabeth's hair, which was down instead of in her usual ponytail, around her face, blinding her momentarily here and there. Her t-shirt snapped back and forth in the breeze. She stared down at the eerily quiet stream and grove of trees, scanning it for anything unusual.

Nothing.

Everything in the forest beside that unsettling stream seemed normal.

Suddenly, the wind blew up against Annabeth with such force and momentum, it pushed her right off the cliff. She tried to scream but no sound came out, as if the words were whipped away from her mouth by the wind and carried away. Annabeth flailed around at first, but then an odd sensation came over her. Something told her to act differently.

She glued her legs straight together and stuck her arms straight down at her sides, so that she was falling straight, like a nail. Her speed accelerated.

Annabeth neared the ground. As she got closer and closer to it, she realized she was going to land in the little stream. She closed her eyes and prepared for a painful impact, but nothing came. She started to feel damp and cold, as if she were lying atop a cool, leaking waterbed, and when Annabeth reopened her eyes she realized she was standing _in_ the stream. From up above, it had looked no more than a foot deep at best, but now she was at the bottom of it and it looked like there was a good ten feet of water above her.

The stream had saved her dream self.

Obviously this was some sort of magical stream, because no normal stream in the world could be this deep. Annabeth gasped, forgetting she was underwater, and the water came rushing into her mouth. There was nothing she could do to stop it. She was drowning.

Drowning, drowning, drowning...

Annabeth gasped and sat up. She blinked a couple times and looked to her right for Percy. She hadn't had a nightmare since the Giant war had ended.

But Percy wasn't beside her.

It was then that Annabeth realized she wasn't even in her tent. Was she even _awake_? She was in a forest clearing in the dead of night. She stuck her hand into the right pocket of her jean shorts and pulled out a flashlight. Annabeth had no clue how she'd known it was there, but hey, she was a demigod having a nightmare. Anything could happen, and anything was possible.

She clicked on the flashlight. The click echoed oddly in the night's silence.

She shone it in front of her and saw a silver bar. Annabeth gasped and stepped back quickly, scared of an attack. She'd realized when she'd pulled out the flashlight that she was unarmed.

She bumped into something and spun around to find… More metal bars.

Annabeth's hands were shaking. She slowly shone the flashlight above and around her, examining her surroundings and what was happening.

She was in a cage.

A loud _clang_ rang through the air. Annabeth inhaled quietly and swung her flashlight around, both trying to see and hoping it served as a sort of defence.

 _You will not find me using a puny flashlight,_ boomed a monotonic voice in her head.

Annabeth winced in pain and dropped to the ground, scratching nervously at skull.

 _Nor will you defeat me with it. Trust me… It'll take a_ lot _to defeat me again._

Annabeth frowned. _Again?_ She'd encountered this enemy before. But… Who was it? She couldn't even tell if the voice was male or female.

"Who are you?" yelled Annabeth, not caring if the voice was only in her head.

The voice laughed maliciously. _Nice try, Annabeth Chase, but you can't figure out my identity by simply_ asking _me. You'll know when the time is right._

 _Now. Listen carefully._

 _Annabeth, Annabeth. You and your pathetic demigod friends may have defeated Gaea for now, but did you_ really _think a little charmspeak and fire would keep her down for long? She_ will _rise again. And I have a plan…_

Annabeth shuddered. This didn't sound good. Could it even be _true?_ Was it even _possible_ for Gaea to awaken at this point? For once, Athena's most prided and intelligent daughter was clueless. Annabeth was both dumbfounded and scared witless.

"What are you doing to me?" she asked, trying to sound confident and enraged. Instead, her words came out sounding strained and nervous.

The voice laughed again. It was the most frightening laugh Annabeth had ever heard.

 _Nothing, little demigod… Nothing_ yet. _But to bring the Earth Mother back, huge consequences must be made. You will simply be paying the price for keeping her at rest by sacrificing yourself in the name of the Gaea._

Annabeth's eyes widened in fear. "S-sacrifing myself?"

 _Yes. Soon. And you're only the beginning._

The voice's evil, booming laughter filled her head, and Annabeth screamed.

"Sh, it's okay. Annabeth, it's okay. It was a dream."

Annabeth's eyes snapped open and she gasped in dire realization of what she'd just dreamed. Tears were streaming down her face and she was shaking from head to toe. Percy had engulfed her in a huge hug and was rubbing Annabeth's back and whispering to her in an attempt to comfort her and bring her out of her horrified reverie.

It seemed she was awake from her nightmare.

"Percy…" she whispered.

"Annabeth," he replied relievedly, like a huge weight had just been taken off his shoulders by hearing her speak. "Annabeth, are you okay?"

Annabeth's body was wracked with uncontrollable shivers. Gaea had been scary, but this voice… She knew it was bad news. _Really_ bad news. Annabeth had a feeling she knew what would be coming her way sooner or later.

"Percy… I… I—"

"Annabeth?"

" _Percy_!" she yelled furiously. She pulled away from his arms, tears running down her cheeks, down her neck, soaking her shirt, dripping onto her sleeping bag.

"What?" he whispered frightenedly.

Annabeth lowered her eyes and spoke in a scared, dangerous whisper. She spoke with certainty, for she was certain she knew her fate, no matter how horrible it may have seemed in that nightmare.

She knew it was the truth.

She knew it was inevitable.

So she told him.

"I'm going to die."

Annabeth waited for him to react.

Percy smiled at her maliciously. "Is that so?"

Annabeth jerked away from his embrace. "Percy!"

"What, Annabeth? Scared of a little... _Sacrifice_?"

Annabeth shook her head, trying to understand. "No. No. No, this can't be happening. I need to wake up. I need to WAKE UP!"

Annabeth pulled at her hair, screaming. Percy shook her shoulders. "WAKE UP, ANNABETH!" he roared.

The tent's door unzipped and her friends came flooding in, all yelling at her to wake up. Annabeth covered her ears and sobbed. Why couldn't she wake up? Was this still a dream? Or... No...

Annabeth gasped for the billionth time that night—But this time, she really felt like she was breathing. She felt as if she were gasping for real.

She looked around. The tent was illuminated slightly. Percy lay next to her, snoring. Finally, she was awake.

Annabeth sobbed. That had been the most horrifying thing she'd ever experienced in her life—and she'd experienced a _lot_ of horrifying things.

Percy stirred in his sleeping bag. "Annabeth?" he murmured. "You awake?"

"Yeah," she replied bravely, choking back another sob and smoothing down Percy's hair. "Yeah, I am."

• • •

A few hours later, everyone was awake and sitting tiredly around the campfire. It seemed the majority of them were pretty mopey that morning. Annabeth was glad—with everyone looking like they'd gotten no sleep, she didn't stand out.

Annabeth tapped Percy, who was sitting in the chair next to her, on the shoulder. "Hey," she whispered. "I'm going to the bathroom."

"'Kay," replied Percy with a yawn.

Annabeth stood up and exited the campsite. She started walking down the road to the nearest outhouse but stopped halfway there.

She could hear the laughter in the cold wind that was blowing that morning.

The same wind from her dream.

The same laughter from her dream.

Annabeth gasped as the wind carried a voice along. It whispered in Annabeth's ear and then disappeared again, leaving her scared witless.

 _One week, Annabeth Chase. You die in one. Week._

* * *

 **Pretty short and very dramatic. Super different from my other chapters. I decided to take a completely different turn with this story because plain old camping was not getting me very far…**

 **Anyways, hopefully the next chapter will be longer and posted soon! ;)**

 **–** **ImpulsesOfLife**


	7. Discovering The Mystery

**Hi… Please don't kill me for the really really really late and pretty short update :| I know excuses are bad, but nonetheless, mine is that I was sick for over a week and I just couldn't bring myself to do much of anything except sit on the couch, alternating between reading and watching TV. As for before and after the sick week… Well… I guess you could say I was just feeling tired and uninspired… Also I've been having some writer's block with this story…**

 **Also, thank you very much to Haybear18, KPtwistepghost, and WinterKit18 for the positive Reviews on Chapter 6 :)**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO; Everything belongs to yours truly, Uncle Rick.**

* * *

 **Annabeth's POV**

Annabeth walked back to camp feeling terrified, like a presence was following her around, waiting for its chance to kill.

But now that she was awake, Annabeth knew she was safe… At least, for the next week.

This camping trip was supposed to be _fun,_ but instead—and all thanks to Leo—she'd been brought out into the middle of nowhere just to be sacrificed to Gaea after all.

So yeah. _Loads_ of fun.

Annabeth plopped down in her camping chair.

Percy glanced over at her. "You okay, Wise Girl?"

Annabeth sighed. _No, she wasn't_. But she wasn't about to tell Percy that. Maybe the nightmare had really just been that: A nightmare. Demigod dreams couldn't _always_ mean something… Could they?

For gods' sake. Annabeth was a daughter of Athena—of _course_ she knew the dream meant something; of _course_ she knew it was true. Besides… The voice had just whispered to her while she was heading to the outhouse. And she wasn't asleep… Which meant she was either hallucinating, or this was real.

She was really going to die.

Annabeth turned to Percy. As much as she wanted to keep this nightmare a secret, she couldn't. Not from Percy, her closest friend, bravest saviour and adoring boyfriend.

"I… Um, I'll tell you about it later." Annabeth decided she couldn't talk about her nightmare in front of all their friends. She was already unsure about telling Percy—no way was she telling the rest of their group, too.

"Okay," murmured Percy concernedly. "You know you can tell me anything, right?"

"Absolutely," replied Annabeth.

 _Maybe not this._

• • •

 **Mystery POV**

"My lord. Ready for the hellhound?" I hissed maliciously. Our plan was falling into effect on all different levels: We were successfully communicating with the Earth Mother and fulfilling her wishes, slowly luring Athena's most prized but powerless daughter into the jaws of a sacrificial trap, and, to top it all off, accomplishing this while keeping ourselves expertly hidden.

Now, no one, not even a god or goddess, would ever suspect _me_ , so that brain child Annabeth Chase wouldn't even have a _chance_ at guessing who I am—But to clue you in, I'm much closer than any of those puny little demigods would think… Because if everything I know is right (and just saying, everything I know is right), it's easiest to take someone down when you're one of the people closest to them.

"Soon," replied my master. I liked to think we were partners in this crime, but… Well, you can clearly see that I'm the underdog in this operation. Nonetheless, my master (or lord or whatever other upholding, respectful name I decide upon calling my partner) and I have a very clear plan. This plan starts with—

"I have decided the hellhound shall be released _tonight_ —no sooner, no later," hissed my master, interrupting my train of thought. So I have to release the hellhound upon that perfect little _protagonist_ tonight… Whatever. It was supposed to be tomorrow, but plans are easily changed. What was I thinking earlier… The plan! It starts with the hellhound. Then the dreams are unleashed, slowly getting more and more horrific, more and more realistic, until poor little Annabeth Chase can no longer tell the difference between a dream and reality. _Then_ — Well, then come our ways of capture, and the sacrifice. Zeus's realm, will she be shocked to see my face! It will be the perfect way to see her die: Shocked. Horrified. Disbelief will flicker across her features… I can picture it all so clearly. I love a good sacrifice. So entertaining.

A good-natured sacrifice just needs to happen every once in a while, am I right?

I'm wrong?

Don't be silly. I'm always right. After all, I _am_ a—

"FOOL!" shrieked my master. You'd imagine a shriek as something high-pitched, but our voices are so deep and scratchy that it came out as more of a… Furious rasp, if you will.

I cowered before him.

"Yes, lord?" I demanded, highly annoyed. I couldn't have done anything wrong, so what was his problem?

"Your thoughts!" he roared. "Keep them under control! Your spirit is free, idiot, anyone can hear what you're thinking in a dream unless you put a damper on that flow of words coming from your brain! And I _do_ believe _someone_ has just heard your thoughts. Really, you _must_ learn to stop narrating your miserable little life like you're the main character in a novel or something!"

"Someone heard my _thoughts_? Was— Was it— Y-you, my lord? Please forgive me! It was a completely frightening shriek, not a furious rasp! A-and, you certainly don't have a problem! And annoyance is _highly_ overrated, such a strong word I used in a time it needn't not be used—"

" _What_ are you rambling about?!" hissed my master, really furious now. "Of course _I_ can hear your discourteous thoughts, imbecile, I've been hearing them for the past three millennia! Your brain just doesn't shut up! I was talking about that too-good-for-himself demigod, Percy Jackson. Someone helped him into a deeper dream than he should've been in—probably Hecate, that no-good goddess of magic, or Hypnos, that little minor god of sleep Zeus-follower! Ooh, or maybe it was _Poseidon_ , the little hero's father. Hm… Perhaps even Athena, though she has a slight distaste for that one… But it is _her_ daughter that's being hurt, so it'd make sense she wants Jackson to know things like this… Alas, never mind. No matter how or why, he has seen inside your head, he has heard your most necessarily secretive thoughts, and now, he will be coming for us.

"Percy Jackson is on to us thanks to you. Soon, he will figure out a way to save his little Annabeth, just as he always does. We must act quickly."

My master stormed off, furious and thinking hard.

Why must it always be me making the mistakes?

And did a certain demigod—Percy Jackson, one I've been quite close to in the past—really just invade my thoughts through a dream-like state of mind?

Life is ridiculous. I cannot _wait_ to sacrifice our prized daughter of Athena to the Earth Mother.

Maybe then things will finally get even.

"Learn to shut your brain up _now_ , you dolt!" roared my master from somewhere nearby.

Right. Shut my brain up.

Shut my brain up.

Shut… Brain… Up…

Ugh, impossible. Not when there's so much to think about, particularly sweet, sweet revenge…

"Try a little harder!" bellowed my master.

"I _am_ trying!" I replied exasperatedly.

Revenge…

And silence.

Percy Jackson shall know nothing more.

No one else will know anything from me.

For I am ready to take over the world, and that will happen with my mind…

In complete…

Silence.

 _Ah._

• • •

 **Percy's POV**

Percy slowly opened his eyes and blinked the sleep out of them a couple times, trying to focus in on what he was seeing.

He was still sitting in his campfire circle chair. Annabeth was sitting next to them, and they were hand-in-hand. When she noticed he was awake, she squeezed his hand and rubbed her thumb rhythmically over the back of his palm. "Good afternoon, sleepyhead," she noted distractedly. After his nap, Percy figured he knew why she was acting so distant.

The sun was high in the middle of the sky, indicating it was probably around noon.

Percy's stomach rumbled, but he told it to shut up.

Percy himself definitely wasn't in the mood for eating after the dream he'd just had.

* * *

 **Let me know what you think! Also, _I'm_ going camping :} Super fun for me buuut... That means probably another at least week-and-a-half-long break from this story, because I'm not bringing any electronics on which I can write :( Maybe I'll have time to write another chapter before I leave in four days though, depending on writer's block, inspiration  & motivation. Maybe...**

 **–ImpulsesOfLife**


	8. This Mess Ends Now

**Hi guys, thanks for your feedback on the last two chapters, particularly that of KPtwistepghost and Guest… Since I have a pretty long A/N today, I'll post it at the end.**

 **But first, I have a quick story. Today I was at Safeway, and we found one of those bins with the Coke bottles that have names on them, so me and my mom started looking through the bin to see if we could find her name (it's sort of unusual). We didn't find it, but we were both reading out the names we found, and my mom was reading "Emily... Taylor... Katie... Travis..." and in my head I was like *le gasp* TRATIE! P.S., more Tratie to come in future chapters ;)**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO—All rights belong to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

 **Annabeth's POV**

Annabeth went to bed that night with a sense of dread settled over her. Last night's dreams had scared her witless, and she most definitely wasn't looking forward to anything coming her way tonight.

But surprisingly, her night was dream-free.

Except she got woken up.

When she heard the hissing and tearing, it wasn't hard for Annabeth to figure out there was a monster in the vicinity.

She bolted upright in her sleeping back, squinting into the darkness and trying to make out any unfamiliar shapes. Her scan of the tent in pitch-black proved to be unsuccessful, so Annabeth fumbled around for a flashlight and when she finally found it, clicked it on and pointed it towards the front of the tent. There seemed to be nothing wrong.

But where had the tearing noises come from? It had sounded like something was shredding the tent…

Annabeth yelped as someone yanked her upwards and through the back of the tent. _Stupid,_ she scolded herself. _They were ripping the_ back _of the tent._

Annabeth tried jabbing her elbow into a spot where the person was grabbing her. (Because Annabeth was _pretty_ sure the hands gripping her arms tight were human.) Then she remembered something: She'd wedged her dagger, wrapped in a cloth, between her bare leg and the waistband of her pyjama pants for fear something like this might happen.

She quickly pulled her dagger out, whipped off the cloth, and had it nearly to her attacker's hand when a third hand snatch it away.

" _Not so fast,_ " hissed a vaguely familiar, slightly feminine voice. Annabeth shivered. Now she was outnumbered two to one. The odds weren't in her favour, especially since her brain was still cloudy from just waking up. She'd need time to think of a way out of this. Annabeth thought for a second as the person with the familiar feminine hiss put away her dagger while Annabeth and her first ambusher waited. Hold on—the tents were _still in view._ Annabeth could try yelling and risk the wrath of her kidnappers. Probably her best option at this point, because some of her friends might hear and come to her aid. Annabeth took a deep breath and let out the loudest ear-splitting scream she could muster. Her captors hissed and started dragging Annabeth off into the woods. Ambusher #2 (from here on, they would be known as Ambusher #1 and Ambusher #2) slapped a hand over Annabeth's mouth as she tried to scream again, so her holler came out muffled and unfortunately quiet. Annabeth could barely see the tents anymore, but just as they passed behind a tree and the campsite disappeared from view altogether, she saw the shadow of a lone figure.

Percy?

Annabeth certainly hoped so.

A few seconds later she got her answer. Percy let out an outraged battle cry and charged on Ambusher #1 with Riptide. Unfortunately, Ambusher #2 must've had some brains, because they simply took their hand off Annabeth's mouth, bent down, picked up a rock and chucked it with perfect aim at Percy's forehead. The rock hit its target with a sickening _conk_ noise. "Percy!" Annabeth screamed. Ambusher #2 hissed angrily at her, then proceeded to bend over Percy and take off his shirt. Annabeth admired her boyfriend's abs for a second before re-focusing. What was Ambusher #2 _doing_? She found out in a second, when Ambusher #2 pressed a rushed-but-still effective gag (made from Percy's sweaty pyjama t-shirt, she might add) into her mouth. Annabeth tried to call out, but the gag worked like a charm.

She couldn't talk.

And now Percy was knocked out on the ground.

Annabeth growled (or at least, attempted to growl) in frustration as her ambushers dragged her off more quickly this time into the forest.

Percy had explained his freaky dream to her earlier that day, and Annabeth had shared everything that'd been happening to her, too. They had come to the conclusion of where Annabeth would be taken to be sacrificed to Gaea (a cage in a spot in the forest that Percy had said he'd known how to get to because the spirit whose mind he'd entered had left from camp to go there) so Percy knew where to find Annabeth… If only he'd wake up. They also knew who one of her captors would be… Although Annabeth was still pretty sceptical of _that_. It was definitely a possibility though, considering what had happened in the past.

Percy, in his dream, had seen that one of Annabeth's captors would be Leo—but possessed by an eidolon.

She was really worried, though, because there were _two_ people dragging Annabeth off to the cage. She realized now that one of her ambushers was probably Leo himself. It was most likely not Ambusher #2, with their familiar feminine voice, so that meant Leo had to be Ambusher #1. Maybe she could find a way to snap him back to reality for even just a moment, a way for Leo to resist the eidolon like Luke had resisted Kronos that fateful day almost a year ago? If Annabeth could get Leo to overpower the eidolon possessing him, even for just a moment, she might have a chance.

"Leo!" yelled Annabeth. Ambusher #1's head whipped towards her. Leo, just as she'd suspected. He cocked his head to the side for a moment, as if considering her. "Leo! I know you're in there! _Listen to me!"_

Leo hissed at her. " _Foolish mortal. Leo is not here right now. I am an eidolon, centuries old and ever-powerful!"_

She sighed. Clearly Leo was not ready to come out yet. She had to wait until the eidolon was weakened a bit somehow, or she had to come up with something really personal and use it to bring his soul back to consciousness, back to the surface. The eidolon had to be pushed back so Leo could push through to his mind again.

Annabeth got dragged deeper into the forest. She tried her hardest not to scrape or cut herself on surrounding bushes or random rocks protruding from the ground (which, much to her annoyance, there seemed to be a lot of). After what seemed like hours but what was probably half an hour or so, they arrived at the cage.

Leo produced a key from his pocket, inserted it into the cage's lock (Annabeth didn't see the point to locking it if there was nothing in it yet, but okay) and shoved her inside. Annabeth stumbled but because she refused to fall rather submissively to her knees for Leo and the eidolon possessing him, quickly regained her balance and stared him in the eyes. Leo stared unblinkingly back, his eyes an eerie shade of gold. Annabeth hardened her stare into a full-on glare and crossed her arms. Then she uncrossed and pointed to the gag in her mouth, which Leo untied and pulled out from behind the bars (unfortunately). "What do you want from me?" she spat as soon as she could speak.

" _You already_ know," replied Leo. " _We're just waiting for the perfect opportunity._ "

"Which is… When?" prompted Annabeth. She needed to know when they were planning on sacrificing her, and if she thought Percy could find her in time.

" _Midnight_ ," hissed Ambusher #2. Annabeth still had no idea who Ambusher #2 was, so she decided to just ask Leo.

"Leo," she said in a commanding tone. "Who's your little _friend?"_

Leo glared back at her with those freaky gold eyes. " _See for yourself_ ," he hissed.

Annabeth realized then that she had a flashlight in her hoodie's pocket. _Huh,_ she thought. _This could've been useful… If I'd thought of it_ earlier! _Kind of useless when I'm already in the cage._

She clicked on the flashlight with shaking hands—Annabeth surprised herself, she hadn't thought she'd actually be nervous to see Leo's accomplice. Was it another one of their friends? Maybe Jason, someone who'd been possessed by an eidolon already, too? But no, the voice had sounded feminine…

Annabeth trained the flashlight on Ambusher #2. Standing in front of her was…

 _"_ _Calypso?"_

Her eyes were also glowing bright gold, a clear indicator that Calypso was not in control of her own actions. Annabeth wondered what it felt like, watching yourself do all these horrible things but not being able to stop yourself. She hoped she never had to experience it.

A slow grin spread across Calypso's face. It made Annabeth want to vomit. Her top priority at this point was to get out of the cage, but she definitely wasn't leaving without freeing Leo and Calypso from the prisons they were trapped inside, too. Again, it couldn't be fun having someone else inside you controlling things.

"What time is it?" blurted Annabeth. She pointed her flashlight at Leo, who looked down at—his _watch._ Of all people, _Leo_ wore a _watch._ It was a weird thing to be marvelling at at the moment, but it just seemed a little strange and… Well, for lack of a better term, _un-Leo-like._

" _Eleven twenty-three_ ," supplied Leo. " _Thirty-seven minutes until midnight_."

Annabeth nodded thoughtfully. She figured Percy should be able to make it—but just in case, Annabeth needed to come up with a plan of her own. She had a little something in mind.

" _Leo,_ " said Annabeth firmly. "Think about Calypso. How much you love her. Think about… Kissing her. Your future together. Leo, do you want all that to be lost?"

For a quick moment, Leo's eyes flickered to a soft brown colour—the colour of _his_ eyes. He'd broken through the surface for a moment. Annabeth had used Calypso as a way to anchor Leo to himself so he could push back the eidolon. But Annabeth had a feeling it wouldn't be leaving that easily. Besides, it _was_ only for a second or two.

"Leo!" yelled Annabeth. "Kiss Calypso! Kiss her, _now_." Annabeth tried to make herself sound authoritative. Apparently it worked to some extent, because Leo's eyes started flickering from gold to brown and while it was happening Annabeth reached her hands through the bars and shoved Leo and Calypso's faces together, hoping a kiss would just naturally happen. It did.

Leo pulled back first and looked around, confused. "Where… What—What _happened?"_ He noticed Annabeth in the cage and his eyes widened. Annabeth prayed to the gods that the eidolon would hold off long enough for Leo to unlock her. He retrieved the key from his magic tool belt… Leaned in towards the lock, and—

Leo stopped and turned his head slowly towards Annabeth with the key paused two centimetres from the lock. His eyes were golden. Annabeth gulped. Leo returned the key slowly to his tool belt.

"Calypso?" she asked, trying to stay calm and sound confident. Calypso turned to her. "A-Annabeth, I… Oh gods!" Annabeth had no clue what Calypso was trying to say, but she had obviously figured out she wasn't in control of her body, and neither was Leo. Annabeth thought Calypso's eidolon had taken over again, but to Annabeth's surprise (and delight) Calypso quickly reached into Leo's tool belt, hawked the key to Annabeth's cage, and unlocked it, all within a few seconds. Annabeth stumbled out into the open like a bear coming out of hibernation and blinked twice. Calypso shoved the key into the palm of Annabeth's hand and walked into the cage, shutting the door behind her. Her almond eyes were ever-present and seemingly all-knowing, and Annabeth figured this girl knew what she was doing. It was the safest way. Annabeth jammed the key into the lock, twisted it, and pulled it back out, trapping Calypso in the cage. Calypso seemed to remember something, and she reached into her pocket. When her hand came back out it was wielding Annabeth's dagger. She thrust it through the bars of the cage. Just as Annabeth grabbed the dagger and Calypso's hand dropped limp to her side again, her eyes glowed gold. The eidolon was now in control again, and Annabeth knew that at this point there was really only one person who could save their friends from the spirits possessing them. It all came down to Percy remembering how they'd banished the eidolons the first time, when he, Jason and Leo were possessed.

"Thank you," whispered Annabeth sincerely. The simple act of Calypso pulling through for just fifteen seconds might have saved Annabeth's life.

Suddenly, Annabeth heard a twig crack. Possessed Leo (that was what she would call Leo under the influence of the eidolon—Possessed Leo) must've heard it too, because both their heads whipped around to face the direction of the sound. In front of them, Percy stepped out of the woods holding Riptide at the ready. He was flanked on either side by Jason and Piper (thank the _Gods,_ thought Annabeth), who were also wielding weapons—Jason with his Imperial gold sword, and Piper with her dagger, Katoptris. Annabeth couldn't help but smile. With her friends by her side, she knew she'd be okay.

Piper fiddled nervously with Katoptris. Jason grabbed one of her hands and squeezed it. "Hey," he whispered. "It's okay. Same thing as on the Argo II. This is old news. All you have to do is charmspeak it out of him, Pipes. I know you can do it." Piper bit her lip and nodded.

Even though Jason had whispered everything, Annabeth had radar hearing. She had to admit, Jason and Piper made a pretty cute couple now that they were starting to get closer. It was good of Jason to be reassuring Piper, too—talking an evil spirit out of the body of your best friend couldn't be easy.

"Leo," spoke Piper. Annabeth could hear the charmspeak she'd poured into her voice, but it wavered a bit so Annabeth was pretty certain Piper would have to "man up", so to speak, and speak with utter confidence, control and command if this was going to work.

"It's okay," whispered Jason to Piper as Possessed Leo turned his gaze on her.

"Piper," whispered Annabeth. She glanced over at her. "It'll be fine. Just command the eidolon to leave like last time. And if it doesn't… Then do something to provoke the good memories he has of you guys together. Or even bad ones, like his mom dying in the warehouse fire, because that'll make him furious at himself or Gaea and he'll want to resist the eidolon."

"Okay," whispered back Piper. "But, um, how exactly do you know all of this?"

"Research a little while ago on the new monsters we encountered during the war," replied Annabeth, waving it off. "Now sound confident and go get your best friend back."

Piper nodded and took a deep breath. She stepped towards Leo. "Leo," she repeated, this time with a tone of voice much louder and much clearer. She definitely sounded more in authority now. "Wait, you're not Leo. Silly me! _Eidolon_! If you're in there, nod."

Possessed Leo nodded slowly. Annabeth figured Piper just wanted to make sure it actually was an eidolon before trying to charmspeak something non-existent out of Leo's body.

"What are you doing inside Leo's body?"

" _The Earth Mother will rise again_ ," hissed Possessed Leo. Annabeth rolled her eyes. She'd had enough of Gaea and all of this rising again nonsense. She just wanted to live her life! (Which would, preferably, be a Percy-filled, monster-free sort of life.)

" _Sacrifices must be made_ ," Possessed Leo continued. He turned towards Annabeth. " _Starting with the daughter of Athena_."

"Why me all of a sudden?" muttered Annabeth. She had no special powers or abilities like the rest of the seven. She supposed her knowledge could count… But still. There were plenty of other demigodly fish in the sea.

"Nice try, but no thanks," said Percy angrily. "Go ahead and sacrifice yourselves, though."

"Percy," whispered Annabeth. She didn't want him to get Possessed Leo all pissed off.

"Eidolon," spoke Piper. "You will _leave_ Leo Valdez's body and you will swear on the River Styx not to possess any demigod ever again, particularly the following people: Leo Valdez, Percy Jackson, Jason Grace, Frank Zhang, Annabeth Chase, Hazel Levesque, and Piper McLean. Again. You will _not_ possess _any_ demigod _ever again_. Now swear it."

"I… I swear?" blinked Possessed Leo.

"Swear on the River Styx you will not break the terms I just described." said Piper. She must've been really sugarcoating that sentence, because Annabeth herself felt like she wanted to swear on the River Styx she wouldn't possess her friends or herself (and that would be pretty weird).

"I swear on the River Styx that… That I won't possess any demigods." Possessed Leo looked pretty confused at this point.

"Now leave Leo's body," commanded Piper, "And don't come back."

Leo let out a huge sigh and slumped to the floor, unconscious.

Annabeth smiled at Percy gratefully. "Best. Boyfriend. _Ever._ " She ran over to him and threw her arms around his neck. Percy was a lot smarter than he first appeared—and because he'd remembered to bring Piper and had brought Jason along for back-up, too, their chances of survival and saving their friends were much greater than had Percy come by himself.

Percy burrowed his head in her neck, and she felt him grin. Annabeth had no idea what she'd do without Percy in her life.

"Ahem," said Jason. Her and Percy pulled apart, and Annabeth slipped her hand into his. "I don't mean to interrupt a sweet reunion, but… Is that Calypso in the cage over there?"

"Yeah," replied Annabeth, blushing. She explained everything that had happened to her so far that night, ending with Calypso being able to suppress the eidolon in an effort to save Annabeth's life. Annabeth was still curious why she'd been so generous, so willing to help—but she had a feeling it had something to do with what had happened to her and Percy in Tartarus and the regrettable curses Calypso had screamed at Percy and Annabeth after Percy had left Calypso's island to return to her.

The four walked over to Calypso's cage, and Piper stared her in the eye. "Eidolon," she acknowledged.

Calypso hissed. " _You will not succeed_."

"Oh, yes we will," Piper sneered. Then she straightened her back and spoke, "Eidolon! I command you to swear on the River Styx that you will leave this body and never possess another living soul as long as you exist," with such authority and such influence that Annabeth was shocked. Her charmspeak had only been getting stronger.

"I swear on the River Styx," vowed the eidolon with no hesitation. Calypso's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she slumped into the bars, her forehead hitting one with a nauseating noise.

" _That_ 'll leave a nasty bruise," guessed Jason, pretty much stating the obvious.

"Ya think?" muttered Piper.

Annabeth unlocked the cage, sort of overlooking the fact the Calypso was leaning against the bars of the door, and she hit the floor. "Oops," mumbled Annabeth meekly.

"Can't be worse than that bruise though," reassured Jason. He took a flashlight out of his pocket and shined it on Calypso's forehead. "Holy Hera! Do you see the size of that lump? Aw, nasty, it's already _purple_. I wonder—"

"Jason, please shut up," interjected Piper.

"Fine," muttered Jason dejectedly.

Piper bent down and felt Calypso's forehead. "Feels a little hot, but she should be okay," she concluded. Annabeth nodded and piped in, "The eidolon probably drained more energy than that bar did. Probably hurt more, too. She should be fine though. Might be out for a while longer than Leo cause of that hit to the head."

Just then, they heard a groan. Annabeth turned around and there was Leo, rolling around on the ground and moaning. "What _happened?"_ he grumbled tiredly.

"Eidolon again," supplied Annabeth.

"Aw, man," sighed Leo. "Sorry guys. But, seriously, did anything bad happen? Because I feel really guilty, and I can't remember everything this time…"

"Well," said Annabeth, "Nobody's hurt. Except maybe your girlfriend." Leo stood up and rushed over to his girlfriend as Annabeth shined her flashlight at Calypso's forehead. Leo made a face. "I didn't do that, did I?" he asked nervously.

"Nope," replied Annabeth. "Now let's head back to camp. Percy and Jason, do you guys mind carrying Calypso…?" Both boys picked her up without protesting (although Leo protested, claiming he was strong enough to carry his own girlfriend… Annabeth said no, because Leo would probably drop Calypso and give her another bruise on the forehead) and they headed back to the campsite.

Halfway back to their campsite, Leo switched out for Percy because he wouldn't shut up about wanting to carry Calypso. Annabeth slipped her hand back into Percy's, just grateful for his very existence at this point.

Percy swung their linked hands cheerfully as they walked. He kissed her on the cheek. "I'm glad you're still alive, Wise Girl," he said. Annabeth thought he'd meant that in a joking matter until she looked up into his mesmerizing sea green eyes and realized that Percy was one hundred percent serious. "Oh." She smiled. "Well, I wouldn't be if it weren't for you." She placed a kiss on his lips, and Piper cooed behind them. "Now that all of that Gaea-rising eidolon nonsense is dealt with, you two can finally enjoy the camping trip!"

Percy and her smirked at each other. "Water balloons tomorrow?" he asked.

"Water balloons tomorrow," she replied in agreement.

And just like that, another crazy day in the life of Annabeth Chase was complete.

* * *

 **So that's that! I actually don't mind how this chapter turned out.**

 **Guest: I completely and totally appreciate your honest opinion. I think yours has been my favourite Review so far because it actually critiques my story which is what I've been looking for and needing! :) In reply to it, I was originally** **just** **going to do a bunch of little cool/random adventures on a fun camping trip, and trust me, I still am. At the beginning I didn't intend for this to turn into a Gaea Rises Again story, I just came up with the idea randomly, and when I get ideas, I go with the flow. Anyways… I haven't been posting often because I got bored with the idea and was wishing I didn't integrate it into the story in the first place because it has a completely different theme and feel that I don't really want this particular story to have! Too late to go back though… So (thank goodness!) I condensed everything that needed to happen into one chapter, and therefore, this will be the last chapter for that.**

 **Also, Guest, thank you for everything else you said in your review, it made my day! :D**

 **Sorry for that super long A/N… Hopefully you read it but if not it doesn't really matter I guess :P On the bright side of everything, though, my camping trip gave me lots of new inspiration for this story! :D**


	9. The Simple Things

**Hi guys… Sorry for what feels like the 1,000,000th time about the late update. I'm trying to work on it, so hopefully after the next couple weeks (please read bottom A/N!) my updates will come more often and more consistently.**

 **Anyways. Thanks to percabethforever6775 and gryffindorgal105 for the Follows and MisticCelestialDragon for the Favourite :)**

 **Hope you enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO—they belong to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

 **Annabeth's POV**

After everything that had happened that night, Annabeth slept like a dog (which is to say, really heavily) until sunrise. Percy kept his arm around her middle all throughout the night—they hadn't separated since Percy had stopped carrying Calypso. Knowing Percy and how much he cared about her, he probably wouldn't let go of her, or at least let her out of his sight, for the rest of the day. Annabeth herself wasn't worried though—she was pretty sure those two eidolons had been stragglers who hadn't heard the news that Gaea had been defeated. Now, she just wanted to enjoy the camping trip… And if Percy was a little overprotective for a few days, then so be it. It just showed how much he loved her, and Annabeth loved him for it.

When Annabeth's eyes finally flickered open, the tent was illuminated with light from outside. She rolled over and picked up the watch she had lying on the floor which served as her clock. It was nine a.m. Annabeth couldn't fall back asleep, so she turned to look at Percy. He had a small line of drool running from his mouth. That brought back memories… She pulled up the hem of his shirt and wiped it away. Then she started playing with his hair. She ran it through her fingers, curled it around her pinky, and tried to smooth it out. Percy groaned and blinked a couple times. "Annabeth?" he asked.

She smiled. "Morning, sunshine."

"What time is it?" grumbled Percy.

"Nine," she replied.

"Oh," said Percy. He pulled his sleeping bag up over his head. Annabeth rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless. "In that case, wake me up in a few hours," came his muffled voice through the sleeping bag. Annabeth yanked it back down and grinned at Percy.

"Yeah, no. Get up, Seaweed Brain. I have a plan."

 **Percy's POV**

Percy wasn't overjoyed when Annabeth pulled his sleeping bag back down—it got _really_ cold sleeping in a tent—but as soon as he saw the mischievous glint in her eyes as she announced she had a plan, Percy forgot his chilliness and jumped out of his sleeping bag, quickly trading in his plaid pyjama pants and sweatshirt for a pair of shorts and a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt. When he turned around, fully dressed, Annabeth stood grinning at him, also done changing.

"Ready to go?" she asked. Percy took in her outfit: Athletic shorts, a grey sweatshirt, and her hair done up in a high bun complete with a headband. Whatever they were doing, it involved something sporty.

Percy nodded at her, feeling a little jittery. What were they doing? He let his mind wander as Annabeth led him out of the tent. The two put on their runners and Percy followed Annabeth down to the camp van.

He observed quietly as Annabeth opened the back doors and climbed in. She turned to the place she'd sat on the ride there, bent down, and—and _opened_ it. The wooden face underneath the cushion where Annabeth had sat was a secret compartment! None of Annabeth's plans failed to amaze him.

She pulled out two large buckets, and two packages of something Percy didn't catch a glimpse of. Then she closed the little panel back up again, like it'd never been opened.

"What's that?" asked Percy in slight awe. Annabeth grinned. "You wanted water balloons. Well, I brought water balloons."

He held a hand up for a high-five, and she complied. Then he hugged her, because she was his girlfriend and he felt like hugging her for coming up with this perfect tactic of bringing along water balloons.

"Who're we gonna shoot?" asked Percy giddily.

Annabeth smirked. "Why pick one person when everyone's asleep in their tents? It'll be a piece of cake to shoot them all if we work fast."

Percy grinned. "I like the way you think."

They headed over to a tap and started filling up water balloons. The kits Annabeth had brought had this nozzle that filled up thirty balloons at a time. You just held the little device over the bucket and pulled the balloons off when they looked big enough—no tying required, because there was already a little elastic band over each one. It was a genius idea, really. Percy wondered if a child of Athena had come up with this brilliant product, because it saved them at least half an hour. Within two minutes, they had their buckets filled to the top with balloons. Annabeth grabbed something out of one of the packets—a slingshot, Percy saw—and they marched into the centre of the campsite to the picnic table with the umbrella (Rachel had set it up, saying she burned easily and wanted shade).

Annabeth studied the metal umbrella pole for a second. Then she took one end of the slingshot, tied it securely to the pole, grabbed the other side and stretched it taught. She gestured towards Percy. "Ready to shoot?"

He grinned and picked up a water balloon, setting it in the little sling. "Who should we shoot first?" asked Percy.

"Um…" said Annabeth. She scanned the tents. Her gaze stopped on one with part of the actual tent material unzipped, so it was just a mesh screen, and she pointed at it. "Perfect."

Percy quickly set his water balloon back in the bucket and ran over to the tent. He couldn't _not_ see who they were shooting at. Inside the tent, Grover and Juniper were snuggled together in one sleeping bag, foreheads touching and sound asleep. Percy felt a little bad waking them (and he had to admit, they looked pretty adorable together) but on the other hand, ew, get your own sleeping bags, and he ran back to Annabeth.

"Who is it?" she asked.

"Grover and Juniper," he replied.

Annabeth smiled. Apparently the thought of shooting on the couple, who had been Percy's closest friends at camp (well, Grover had been Percy's closest friend—Juniper, not so much) amused her, too.

Percy picked his water balloon back up and set it in the sling once again. Then he took a few steps back, stretching out the slingshot and aiming towards the mesh screen of Grover and Juniper's tent. Annabeth studied the angle, making sure he had it perfect.

Percy moved the sling a teeny bit to the right, and Annabeth whispered, "There." Percy let go. The water balloon sailed through the air. The pair held their breaths. The balloon hit the mesh screen hard and popped against it. Percy did a fist pump and Annabeth dropped the slingshot, doing a little victory dance, as they heard Grover's goat bleat and Juniper's cry of, "What the…?!"

Percy high-fived Annabeth for the second time that day, and then picked up the slingshot so Annabeth could shoot. She grabbed a water balloon, placed it in the sling, and surveyed the tent circle once again. Percy did too. After a couple seconds, he pointed to another tent that also had the tent material unzipped so the mesh screen was showing. "There," pointed Percy. They didn't have time to keep checking who was inside the victim tent, so Annabeth aimed and the balloon flew towards the tent, once again hitting its target spot on. Annabeth had a little fit of evil silent laughter, and Percy quietly snickered.

"TRAVIS!" yelled a voice from the tent they'd just shot. Percy and Annabeth looked at each other and doubled over in laughter. "Katie and Travis!" wheezed Annabeth. Percy nodded and picked up another balloon. They had to keep going.

Annabeth grabbed the side of the slingshot as Percy aimed at the last mesh screened tent. He let the water balloon fly and, as expected, it hit its target. Percy and Annabeth high-fived again but grabbed each other's hands instead of pulling away from it.

"YO!" yelled a guy's voice. Percy sniggered, realizing whose tent it was. "Jason! Be quiet!" came a girl's voice in an attempted whisper.

Annabeth laughed, also realizing whose tent it was.

"Sorry!" they heard Jason huff angrily. "Something just got me all wet!"

"What?" replied Piper confusedly.

Percy and Annabeth looked at each other. "It must've missed Piper!" whispered Annabeth incredulously. Percy nodded, his eyes widening. Then they heard it: the sound of a tent unzipping. Percy panicked and looked to Annabeth, who was also panicking. "What do we do?" asked Percy. Annabeth quickly picked up one side of the water balloon launcher. "We load it!" she whispered urgently. "That way they won't come after us. Quickly!"

Percy put a water balloon in the launcher and pulled back, preparing to release the little water bomb on whoever came after them.

The unzipping noise stopped, and Jason stepped out of his tent. The top half of his Camp Jupiter t-shirt was soaked with water, and his hair was looking nice and wet, too. "Perfect hit," whispered Percy. "Agreed," replied Annabeth in a hushed tone.

Jason started stomping towards them but stopped when he noticed Percy was poised to launch another one his way. He quickly raised his hands in the air in surrender. "Don't shoot! I want to join your attack team."

Percy and Annabeth shared a look. They hadn't thought Jason would want to join them… The two had a conversation with their eyes and came to a silent agreement: Jason was obviously trying to take them down from the inside. Plus, Percy was pretty sure Jason was only wearing boxers… And upon further inspection, Percy realized it was the lightning bolt pair Piper had held up to Jason in the photo Percy had taken of them before they'd left for camp. (Percy raised his eyebrows a bit at the sight of that, but he couldn't really judge, considering he himself had a grey pair with little turquoise tridents all over…) Anyways. They couldn't be a team of badass water balloon shooters if one of their members was wearing lightning bolt underpants.

"Fine," replied Percy, inwardly smirking, "But first… Observe your girlfriend coming out of her tent."

"What?" replied Jason confusedly, turning around to look at his tent, which Piper was _not_ coming out of. Percy grinned deviously and launched the water balloon. It hit Jason straight in the middle of his back.

Jason turned around with an incredulous expression on his face. "Dude!" he cried. Percy shrugged. "Sorry, man. Gotta do what you gotta do."

Jason rolled his eyes and shook his head and, ultimately, went back inside his tent. Percy watched as he sent a glare at them from through the mesh screen before zipping it up so he couldn't get hit again.

Percy and Annabeth looked at each other. Annabeth dissolved into a fit of giggles and Percy burst out laughing. "Nice shot," she gasped. Percy smiled and hugged her. "Thanks. Great idea," he replied. Annabeth grinned up at him. "Thanks."

The two grabbed the water balloon supplies and walked hand-in-hand back to their tent, where they hid them under a pile of suitcases, clothes and shoes. Then Annabeth reached under all the stuff and pulled out two water balloons. She gestured for Percy to do the same, so he did. Then they marched back out of the tent.

"What are we doing?" whispered Percy, confused. Annabeth smiled deviously and fixed her gaze on a tent. Percy followed her line of sight and realized she was staring at Jason and Piper's tent again.

"Oh," he said, cracking a smile. They walked as quietly as possible up to the tent. Annabeth counted down on her fingers: _Three. Two. One._ She unzipped the tent's door incredibly fast, and threw her water balloons at Piper, while Percy threw his at Jason. All four hit their targets spot-on. (Just because Percy couldn't use a bow and arrow to save his life didn't mean he didn't have good aim.)

After the water balloons splashed, Jason yelled, "Seriously, AGAIN?!" and Piper screeched, "Annabeth Chase! You'll _pay_ for this!"

Percy and Annabeth decided then was a good moment to run for their lives.

Annabeth grabbed his arm and steered him in the direction of the lake. They ran until they got there, and Percy didn't stop, ripping off his shirt, slipping out of his shoes incredibly fast, and catapulting into the cool, soothing water. He popped back up to the surface with a grin and motioned for Annabeth to come in, but Annabeth raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms.

"Percy, I'm not getting wet," she said. "It's barely ten a.m."

"I can control the water so it doesn't get you wet," he offered, mostly because _he_ didn't want to get _out_ of the lake but also because he really wanted _Annabeth_ to get _in_ the lake.

She rolled her eyes and pulled off her sweatshirt and runners, revealing a loose blue v-neck t-shirt and bare feet. She ran up to the lake and cannonballed in. Upon her entrance into the lake, Percy formed an air bubble around her and swam over, slipping inside it. Then he kissed her, and she kissed back, and the rush of the fun morning washed over him and he thought again about how much he loved Annabeth.

It was the second best underwater kiss of all time.

• • •

 **Jason's POV**

Thanks to Percy and Annabeth, Jason was now _soaked._ He quickly took off his t-shirt, muttering angrily as he tried to dry off his chest and back with the dry parts of his shirt. Jason felt eyes on him, and turned around to find Piper staring at him. "What _happened?"_ she demanded. Jason blushed. "Percy and Annabeth," he sighed. "Water balloons."

Piper giggled. "Hey!" cried Jason. "You're supposed to be on my side!"

Piper just grinned. "Yeah, yeah. I'm always on your side, Sparky. But that doesn't mean this isn't funny." Then she frowned. "Even if I _am_ soaking wet and freezing."

Jason glared at her and grabbed a towel, attempting to further dry his body and hair, before slipping on a long-sleeved Superman shirt and looking down at his shorts, deciding what to change them to… When he realized his shorts were actually boxers.

"Gods dammit!" muttered Jason, feeling a rush of embarrassment at the thought of Percy and Annabeth witnessing him storm out of his tent in lightning bolt boxer briefs and a Camp Jupiter t-shirt, his hair ruffled and his eyes tired with sleep. Great way to keep up his status as a put-together, serious-when-it-called-for, strict-but-kind former praetor of New Rome. If Percy really did just see him wearing those underpants, Jason would never hear the end of it.

Jason quickly slipped a pair of cargo shorts on top of his boxers, then flopped back onto his and Piper's air mattress, sending Piper bouncing into the air and dropping back down onto her side. "Hey!" muttered Piper, rolling over and tackling Jason. Jason was now pinned underneath Piper, who had a murderous glare in her eyes. Jason thought he saw a bit of playfulness, too, but he couldn't be sure, and he wasn't going to dare risk making her mad a third time.

"Jason, Jason, Jason," said Piper in a scolding tone of voice. "First you wake me up, now you throw me around the air mattress by bouncing onto it? You're going to _pay_ …" Now her eyes were more playful, but Jason still gulped nervously. Luckily, Piper leaned her head down towards his, and Jason closed his eyes right before their lips were about to make contact. But after a few seconds, he realized… Their lips hadn't actually touched.

Jason opened his eyes. Piper was still sitting on his chest, but now she was leaned back with her arms crossed over her chest and a playful smirk on her face. "Nice try, Sparky," she said with a shrug. "Sure I get pissed at Leo when he calls me Beauty Queen, but that doesn't mean I don't need my beauty _sleep._ Jason Grace, no kisses for two days."

Jason's jaw dropped. Never before had Piper punished him by not allowing him to kiss her. (Truth be told, he sort of thought it'd be a bit of a punishment for Piper, too… But apparently she could go without kissing Jason for a couple days. Either that, or she was a really great actress. Or maybe she was just willing to put the kissing aspect of their relationship aside for two measly days so she could get revenge. Who knew?)

"What?" Jason squeaked.

Piper grinned. "You heard me," she replied with a shrug of her shoulders. "Now. I command you to go make me some pancakes!" she said with a grand sweep of her arm, slumping back onto the air mattress. She turned towards him. "And if they're _really_ good, then maybe— Just _maybe_ —" Piper said deviously, "I'll shorten the no-kisses punishment to today only." Jason's eyes widened, and he scrambled to get up and out of the tent quickly. They were on vacation! He didn't want to sit around not kissing or bonding with his girlfriend. But nooo, he had to be stupid and be a little rude to Piper. Now they weren't kissing, and they _definitely_ weren't bonding.

On the bright side, Jason really tried his best with the pancakes. The eight he made turned out perfect, which Jason was ecstatic about.

"I approve," nodded Piper as she finished off her third blueberry pancake. "Your punishment is shortened to today only."

Jason did a fist pump. Who knew he could cook! (Well, actually, he'd gotten a bit of help from Percy, whose mom Sally cooked all the time and insisted Percy knew how to hold his own in the kitchen, but Piper didn't need to know that.)

Jason leaned in to give Piper a celebratory kiss, completely forgetting his punishment—or in other words, _why he made those pancakes in the first place_ —and Piper slid her hand up to cover her lips, so Jason kissed her palm instead.

Piper pushed his face away, smirking, and Jason blushed. "Ah, ah, ah," scolded Piper playfully, "No kisses today, remember? Or do I already have to change it back to two days?"

"No!" yelped Jason. "I mean…" he stuttered. "Um. Sorry. I forgot."

Piper shrugged and gave him a little smile before sauntering off towards Percy and Annabeth's tent, probably to have a little chat with Annabeth about the water balloon scheme... Or how epic girls were and how good of a plan not kissing Jason was.

• • •

Jason died a little inside that day, he felt so alone. That night, sitting at the campfire with Percy and Annabeth cuddling to his left and Piper just _sitting_ there to his right, Jason wanted nothing more than to lean over and give Piper a deep kiss. But he couldn't until the day was over…

Jason had been checking his phone repeatedly for the past two hours, wishing that time would speed up a bit already. Unfortunately, the Titan Kronos was the only being Jason knew of who could control time… And based on what the Camp Half-Blood campers who'd fought Kronos and his army the summer before had told him, Jason did _not_ want a run-in with that guy.

Jason checked his phone for the gazillionth time that day and groaned. Only 11:27 p.m. He still had to wait another half an hour…

Suddenly, Jason heard a _crack_ , and his head snapped up from the position it was in, lolling on his shoulder. Luckily, though, it wasn't anything dangerous, because what he saw in front of him was a bright green glow stick lighting up the darkness in front of Hazel's face.

"Guys!" Hazel shrieked. "These are so cool!" She waved her glow stick around excitedly, forming a blur of green light. Frank smiled at her. Jason walked up to Hazel, an idea forming in his mind.

"Hey, Hazel," he started, plopping into the chair next to her, which Frank had just left unoccupied so he could go to the bathroom, "Do you happen to have any more of those?" he asked.

Hazel fiddled with her hands uncomfortably. "Well, um, I kind of got it from the Stolls' suitcase?" she whispered nervously.

Jason's eyes widened. Hazel didn't spark him as someone who'd steal, but then again, Jason was about to do the exact same thing.

"Thanks," he said to Hazel. "No problem," she replied.

"Percy!" yelled Jason. "Get over here!" Percy came jogging up to Jason, who'd positioned himself outside Connor's tent (he figured Travis wouldn't keep a suitcase full of glow sticks and who knew what else in a tent he was sharing with Katie, which only left Connor).

"What?" asked Percy confusedly. Jason made sure no one was watching them, then quickly unzipped Connor's tent and hopped inside. Percy followed suit.

"Hazel got the glow stick from Connor's suitcase," Jason explained. "So grab a bunch and follow me."

Percy complied, and the two left the tent as quietly as they'd entered, Percy's arms full of glow sticks. Jason led him to the field part of their group campsite, where they were out in the open. Then Jason grabbed a glow stick from Percy and produced the ball of thin rope string he'd stashed in his coat while in Travis and Katie's tent.

"What are we _doing?"_ asked Percy confusedly. Jason grinned at him. "Having fun with glow sticks!"

Jason quickly thread the rope string through the little hole on top of the glow stick he'd grabbed and cracked. Then he ripped it off and tied it so there was a large loop of rope string with the glow stick hanging off.

"There!" he announced proudly, holding it up so Percy could see. The guy actually _frowned._

"We're making _glow stick necklaces?"_ asked Percy incredulously.

"No, you idiot!" cried Jason. "This is just so it makes what I'm about to do next a little easier."

Jason started quickly swinging his glow stick–rope creation around in a circle. The glow stick at the end of the rope whipped around in a circle motion so fast that the light blurred together, creating a large, glowing green circle in front of Jason.

"Whoa," said Percy. "Cool."

Jason nodded and prepared for what he'd planned. He swung the rope around a few more times, faster, then when the glow stick was coming around the circle at the perfect angle, he let go of the rope. It flew high, higher, and higher into the air. Jason figured it must've been at least thirty feet up there. He threw his head back and stared at the dark, starry sky and the little green glow stick seemingly floating in it. For a moment there, Jason felt a little lost—lost in the sky, lost in the universe, completely at peace and in awe. He vaguely remembered Thalia showing him something like this when he'd been really little—before this whole demigod mess that, eventually, had turned out to be a blessing-in-disguise had happened. Then the glow stick started its descent, coming down fast, and Jason rushed to where it was falling. He managed to catch it, then turned to look back at Percy.

"Whoa," repeated Percy, eyes wide. "Cool." Neither of them had really had the chance to do something as innocent as playing with glow sticks when they were kids (besides that one time with Thalia, of course). Now that the most difficult parts of his life were over (hopefully), Jason figured it was time to make up for the years of training, seriousness and war by having some simple fun. He wagered almost every other person on this camping trip felt the same way.

Percy dropped the glow sticks on the ground, then picked one up and cracked it. The bright green light spread throughout the little tube. Percy grinned and then, instead of doing what Jason did, he snapped it in half and flung the liquid all over the place. Little droplets of glowing green chemicals flew through the air. Jason wasn't one for being sappy, but even _he_ had to admit it looked pretty surreal. The droplets landed back onto the grass, so there were glowing specks all over the area where they were standing. Jason looked at Percy and noticed some had gotten in his hair, so his mop of crazy black hair looked even crazier, now speckled with bright green polkadots. Jason stifled his laughter at Percy's fascinated expression and glowing hair.

The two continued throwing and breaking open glow sticks, whooping and staring in awe. When all of them were used up, Jason and Percy headed back to the ring of tents speckled in green glow stick chemicals. Everyone stared at them as they sat back down. Jason noticed Annabeth give Percy a once-over with a raised eyebrow. Percy shrugged and said something to her, to which Annabeth responded by rolling her eyes and kissing him.

Jason wished he could kiss Piper already. Then he realized he hadn't checked the time in a while, and pulled out his phone, turning it on.

His eyes widened when he saw the time. 12:07 a.m.! The day was officially over!

Jason turned towards Piper, who was staring at him, grinning. He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her long and hard. When he pulled back, Piper's eyes were sparkling. "Well that wasn't so hard, now was it?" she asked with a grin. Jason pulled her into a big hug and whispered in her ear, "It was _really_ hard. Never, _ever_ do that to me again."

He pulled back and Piper was grinning like mad. Jason blushed a bit.

Being in love and living a demigod's life were such crazy, wonderful, messed-up experiences, thought Jason as he leaned in to kiss Piper again—but he wouldn't trade this life for anything in the world.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading :) Please review if you have the time! I read and appreciate all feedback I get.**

 **PLEASE READ:** **I'll be going to a sleep-away camp in four days, and it'll last a week. I most likely won't be able to post again before I leave so… Yeah! I have a bunch of stuff to post on Percy's birthday though (because why not I mean it's our favourite demigod's birthday!) and that's two days after I get back, so it'll be two weeks before I post again. Thanks for taking the time to read this :) (Also it doesn't really matter too much because lately I've been taking like 2 weeks to post anyways but still…)**

 **Until the eighteenth!**

 **–** **ImpulsesOfLife**


	10. From PB & J's to Cloud 9

**Hello PJO fandom :) I'm back from camp! It was super awesome! And…Today is Percy's birthday! :D In honour of the demigod who started it all's special day, I have a double update for this story—which means I'm posting two chapters at once, yay! :) Plus I'm publishing a Percabeth one-shot called And Life Begins. I'd really appreciate it if you could go check that out when it gets posted tomorrow :) Anyways, enjoy the double update! (wow lots of smiley faces and exclamation points in there :P)**

 **Disclaimer: PJO & HoO belong to Rick, not me.**

* * *

 **Travis' POV**

Travis woke up that morning to Katie's incessant, annoying shrieks.

"What _is_ it?" he moaned, rolling over in his sleeping bag to face Katie.

"Ants!" she squeaked. "Ants everywhere!"

Sure enough, Travis glanced down at the ground and little brownish-red ants were swarmed all over the floor inside the tent. "What the…?" he questioned. They were _inside a tent._ How had ants gotten there?

"Leo must've set the tent up on an anthill!" Katie cried, telepathically answering Travis's question, "And there has to be a hole in the tent somewhere!"

Travis nodded and slid out of his sleeping bag, taking care to not step on the ant-covered ground. Then he shuffled to the edge of the sleeping bag, reached out as far as he could and was able to grab his favourite pair of sandals.

"Well," he said, "See ya later!" Travis saluted to Katie and ran out of the tent as fast as his legs would carry him (which was pretty fast— he _was_ a son of Hermes, after all, and just like all his siblings, he was a speed demon).

"Travis Stoll!" yelled Katie angrily. "Get back in here and get me out _right now_!"

Travis smirked, rolling his eyes. He wouldn't have actually left Katie in there—he was just going to pick up her shoes and toss them inside the tent so she could escape like he had—but instead he ducked back inside the tent, picked Katie up and dodged back out.

" _Thank_ you," she huffed. Travis set her down (a little disappointedly, he might add—Travis, although he would never admit it, had a _massive_ crush on Katie) and Katie looked down at her feet. Then she shrieked again and started flailing her arms and legs around wildly.

"What now?" grumbled Travis, crossing his arms.

"Those godsdamn ants again! They're on me!" wailed Katie. Travis looked hard at Katie's tanned legs and her socks-and-sandals–covered feet, and truth be told, there actually were a few little ants crawling around on her. Travis figured he probably had some on himself, too, but he didn't really care.

"Shouldn't you not be afraid of ants or something?" asked Travis pointedly. "I mean, your mom's Demeter. You garden all the time. Aren't there tons of ants in gardens?"

"At camp we have things to get rid of the ants!" she explained hurriedly. "Now shut up and help me make me ant-free!"

Travis complied and bent down to try and get some of the ants off Katie's legs. He flicked six off and then circled her legs, checking for more as Katie brushed off her arms and her torso and her everything else.

"All clear," announced Travis, standing back up. Katie sighed in relief. "Thank the _gods_. I _hate_ ants."

"You don't say," muttered Travis, flicking an ant off his arm.

"What was that, Stoll?" she asked, eyebrows raised and hands on hips as if daring him to repeat his sentence.

"Nothing," he sighed, flopping down dramatically onto a camp chair. "So whaddya wanna do?"

Katie looked at him like he was crazy. "What do you mean, 'Whaddo I wanna do'? I'm going to go get a piece of bread and the jars of peanut butter and jam from the van, make myself a sandwich, and sit down in a chair to eat it. Then I'm going to read my book, still in the chair of course, whilst waiting for someone I actually want to spend some time with to wake up."

"Ouch," said Travis, placing his hand on his heart dramatically as if he were drastically wounded by her words. "But fine. And if you're making yourself a PB & J, then bring me a piece of bread too. Because peanut butter and jam sandwiches happen to be my most favourite of the sandwiches."

Katie just rolled her eyes and stalked off. Travis hoped she was kind enough to actually get him some bread, because he really didn't feel like walking all the way down to the van. Plus he actually did want a PB & J.

A couple minutes later, Katie reappeared holding two jars and a whole loaf of bread. _Yes_ , thought Travis giddily. Now he got to have lots of PB & J's, and it proved Katie actually maybe cared for him a little bit! Or at least, she wasn't as rude so as to not get him a piece of bread if she was already getting one for herself.

Katie plopped into the camp chair next to Travis's and set the supplies down on the ground. Travis grabbed the loaf of bread, pulled off the tab and took out a piece as Katie untwisted the lids on the jars. Then Katie grabbed a piece of bread and Travis scooted his chair closer to Katie's. (Pfft, no, not because he liked her! The scooting of the chair was purely for the purpose of the sharing of the peanut butter and jam. Jeez.)

Katie glanced at him with an emotion that Travis couldn't quite decipher, and he stared at her quizzically, but she looked away.

Travis carefully balanced the jars between the armrests. Then he took his piece of bread, swiped it in the peanut butter, swiped it in the jam and took a bite out of it.

"Ew," said Katie. Travis looked over, chewing thoughtfully. Katie's nose was crinkled cutely. He stared at her freckles, which were also very cute, for a moment, and then grinned toothily at her, knowing full well there was peanut butter stuck all over his mouth. Katie slapped his arm playfully and Travis closed his mouth, running his tongue over his teeth to pick up the peanut butter.

A little frown graced Katie's features. "Other people have to eat that, you know," she commented slightly disgustedly. Travis shrugged. "Who cares? We're family."

Katie raised her eyebrows at him. "Rachel Elizabeth Dare is your family?"

Travis blushed at his pointed-out mistake. "Well, we're obviously not related to Rachel. But what's the likelihood that she's gonna have some jam and go, ' _Hm, tastes like Travis has been swiping peanut-buttered bread in here?'_ "

Katie rolled her eyes. "You have a point," she grumbled, and followed Travis's lead, swiping her own piece of bread through the peanut butter and then the jam. Travis grinned inwardly. He was breaking the ice a bit here.

They polished off a couple pieces of bread each in no time at all, and Travis sat back in his chair. He looked over at Katie, who was licking some peanut butter off her forefinger.

"I like you," he blurted randomly. Then he widened his eyes and mentally slapped himself as he realized what he'd just said. Katie looked over at him, finger still in mouth and eyebrows raised. "Huh?" she mumbled, pulling her de-peanut buttered finger out of her mouth. Travis blubbered like a fish. "Um… Uh… I… I like you?" It came out as more of a question. He honestly hadn't intended to say it in the first place, but now that it was out there, he couldn't exactly take it back.

Katie grinned. She actually _grinned._ Travis was more than a little confused. He was pretty certain Katie hated her, or at the very least, didn't like him. But her grin grew wider, and she said in what sounded like a completely honest tone of voice, "Good. Because I like you too."

Then she did something that shocked Travis even more: She leaned over and kissed him. Her mouth tasted like peanut butter, and his probably did too, but he kissed back and it was a completely unexpected but utterly magical moment for Travis.

When Katie pulled away, her eyes were sparkling. Travis smiled at her, about to say something romantic, but then the stupid son of Hermes side of his brain got in the way and he smirked. "So. Am I a good kisser?"

Katie laughed and slapped his arm playfully again. "You're definitely not bad," she admitted. Travis grinned and did a mental fist-pump. That was one more won bet against Connor: Kiss Katie on this camping trip and have her like it. He was racking up drachmas faster than a pegasus could fly. But at this point, he almost didn't care how many drachmas he was earning, because now he knew Katie Gardner liked him back.

• • •

Later that day when everyone was awake, Travis walked up to Connor with a pep in his step and surrounded by an aura of confidence and swagger. "Bro," whispered Travis excitedly. "She kissed me."

Connor, who was sipping from a can of Dr. Pepper, did a spit-take. " _Katie kissed you_?"

Travis grinned proudly. "Yup! I accidentally blurted that I liked her, but then she said she liked me too and kissed me _on the lips_ and I kissed back and it was _awesome!"_

Connor fist-bumped Travis. " _Nice_. So did she like it?"

"Yup!" Travis made a motion with his hand, like _Pay up._ "So hand over the drachmas. Thirty, baby!" Connor rolled his eyes and rummaged through his pockets. Then he dumped seven drachmas into Travis's waiting hands. "All I have on me right now," he explained. "I'll pay you back the rest later."

"Fine," said Travis, not really caring because _Katie Gardner kissed him!_ and he was still on Cloud 9.

• • •

That night around the campfire, Travis no longer felt left out or jealous when he looked around the circle at Percy and Annabeth, Jason and Piper, Leo and Calypso, Frank and Hazel and Grover and Juniper, because Katie was sitting next to him holding his hand and he was smiling and she was smiling and in that moment, for that day, the gods seemed to be on his side, because everything felt _right_.

"Yo, Travis!" called someone from across the circle. Travis's head whipped towards the source of the voice and found Will Solace staring at him with a grin on his face. "You and Katie, huh?"

Travis grinned a little sheepishly and nodded happily.

Will smiled broadly. "I saw it coming!" he laughed, and Travis laughed too. He'd only seen it coming in his dreams, so he still couldn't believe he and Katie were actually a couple now.

"Travis!" called a second voice. Leo was walking towards him. "The ants are gone from you and Katie's tent, and I patched up the hole. Happy sleeping!" he bode, plopping down into a chair next to Calypso.

Katie clasped her hands together and looked at the sky. "Thank the _gods_ , no more disgusting ants! Thank you, too, Leo," she called. Leo tipped an imaginary hat towards her. "No problemo."

Travis looked at Katie and found that she'd been looking at him. She blushed lightly, and so did Travis.

"Uhm," murmured Katie, partly to Travis and partly to their circle of friends, "I think I'm ready for bed. We were up at five a.m. thanks to those stupid ants."

"Yeah," Travis agreed, standing up and stretching his arms above his head. Katie did the same, and her sweatshirt lifted up a bit, exposing some of her midriff. Travis couldn't help but stare a little, because she was a daughter of Demeter; he hadn't expected her to be that in shape. But then again, wasn't everyone at camp in shape? You sort of had to be if you wanted to last more than a week.

"'Night, guys," mumbled Katie sleepily. "'Night," repeated Travis with a yawn.

And just like that, they headed into the tent, changed, and hopped into their ant-free sleeping bags. Travis drifted off into sleep, and his perfect day came to a close. He hoped the rest of the trip would be as good as it was that day.

* * *

 **Sorta short and a little cheesy, but there you have it! I sort of forgot I was doing all these updates today until 7 p.m. so I had to crank out a bunch of writing that was hopefully still good.**

 **Don't forget to Review, Follow & Favourite!**

 **–** **ImpulsesOfLife**


	11. Paddleboarding Into The Sunrise

**Part 2 of the double update :)**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO—all rights belong to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

"Wake up, Seaweed Brain! We're going paddleboarding!"

Percy rolled over and opened his eyes. Annabeth was standing over him, dressed in a navy blue bikini top and black Adidas shorts. Her hands were on her hips, her curly hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she looked ready to conquer the day.

Percy wiggled sluggishly out of his sleeping bag. He crawled slowly over to his suitcase, pulled out a pair of board shorts and took his sweet time changing into them. He was still feeling pretty sleepy, but then Annabeth unscrewed her water bottle and splashed him. Percy, being too lazy to deflect the water, got a nice big splat of it on himself and instantly felt more awake.

"Let's go," said Annabeth, leading him out of the tent and down to the van. She opened up a floor compartment inside it and pulled out a paddleboard. Percy grabbed his own, and they each got a long paddle. They didn't bother with lifejackets because Percy figured there was nothing to fear around water if you were with him.

They jogged down to the lake in silence. _Silence,_ Percy noted. They hadn't really been doing a lot of talking that morning, but it was probably because they were both still really tired.

When they got to the lake, Annabeth put down her board and paddle and pulled off her shorts, revealing her matching navy blue bikini bottoms. Then she moved her paddleboard into the water, grabbed her paddle, and waded in until the board wasn't touching the lake's bottom. She hopped on on her knees and started paddling out into the middle of the lake. Percy followed her example exactly and soon they were standing, paddling quietly along and looking at the beautiful scenery.

It was still early morning, probably around six, and there was a thin layer of fog hanging in the air around the lake. The trees stood tall and proud, some bright green and others a darker, gloomier shade. The lake water glimmered in the faint light, not too murky but not a hundred percent clear, either—clear enough to see down a bit but murky enough to make you wonder what was at the bottom.

Annabeth stopped paddling and gracefully sat down on her paddleboard so that her legs were dangling over the sides in the water. Percy copied her, but a little less gracefully.

Annabeth used her paddle to move closer to him, and when they were right next to each other, she leaned over and kissed him softly. "Happy birthday, Seaweed Brain," she murmured with a smile.

Percy's eyes widened. He hadn't even realized it was his birthday, but now that he thought about it, time had flown fast after the war. It made sense that Annabeth, as organized as she was, knew what day it was and he didn't.

"Thanks," whispered Percy. "Happy anniversary." His birthday was also their official anniversary; It'd been a year now since they'd started dating, and Percy couldn't have asked for a better girlfriend or best friend, partner in crime, teacher, or companion. Annabeth was all he really needed in life to live, love, learn and be happy.

She smiled at him and pointed to the horizon. "We can watch the sunrise," she whispered, and she grabbed on to his hand.

Percy and Annabeth stayed holding hands all throughout the sunrise. They watched the sun peak out from behind the mountains and turn the sky brilliant shades of pink and orange, and they watched on as the pink and orange started to fade and the sky grew brighter as the day got older.

Finally, when the sky was back to its original shade of blue, they stood up and paddled around a bit more. Then Percy splashed Annabeth.

"Hey!" she called playfully, splashing him back. Percy grinned and splashed her again. Soon they were in a full-fledged splash war, trying to paddle away on their boards and using their paddles to send huge splashes towards each other. Eventually (once they were completely soaked) they came to a silent agreement that they'd had enough and headed back to shore, making jokes and laughing.

When they put away their paddleboards and got back to camp, they towel-dried off and went to sit in the campfire circle. Jason, Piper, Rachel, Thalia, Grover and Juniper were already awake and sitting there too. As soon as they saw Percy, they all called, "Happy birthday!" which made him grin widely. He couldn't believe everyone actually remembered (either that, or maybe Annabeth had told them).

"So, Percy," said Thalia, raising an eyebrow and holding out a fake microphone, "How does it feel to be seventeen?"

Percy rolled his eyes and replied, "I'm just happy to be alive."

Jason turned to Percy and nodded solemnly. "I'm with you bro." Exactly three seconds passed where they were staring at each other intensely, hands on hearts, before they erupted into fits of laughter.

As Percy and Jason continued sniggering, Thalia shrugged and pretended to throw away her microphone. "Fair enough."

"Happy anniversary, too, you guys," said Piper, winking at Annabeth. Percy turned towards his girlfriend and watched as a blush crept across her face, which made him wonder what Annabeth and Piper had been talking about earlier. He'd probably never know.

Just then, Leo and Calypso's tent door unzipped and they both stepped out wearing sweat pants and hoodies.

"Happy birthday to you," sang Leo, "You live in a zoo. You look like a monkey and you smell like one too!"

Percy rolled his eyes at Leo's version of 'Happy Birthday'. "Gee, thanks." But he'd kind of expected it, because Percy had sung the same song to Leo on _his_ birthday.

The ten in the circle waited for everyone else to wake up and join them, and once everyone on the trip was awake and seated, Annabeth cleared her throat and announced she'd made a plan for the day.

"We're going to go on an overnight hike!" she revealed excitedly. Percy grinned. Annabeth had talked before about how she wanted to go on an overnight hike. Hiking was something Annabeth loved in theory but had never really had the time or the right opportunity to try it out. Now was her chance, though, and Percy figured she wasn't going to miss it.

Nobody protested. In fact, everyone looked pretty happy. Percy himself was actually sort of excited for an overnight hike—it was something he'd never done before.

"Alright," said Annabeth. "We're going to have to go fast. There's a hiking backpack for each of us in the van—" Percy was _still_ shocked how much could actually fit inside that van— "And we just have to pack a sleeping bag, bathing suit, pants and sweatshirts for each of us individually. For all of us, though, we'll need food, tarps, rope, toilet paper and basic necessities like lighters and walkie talkies and stuff."

Everyone nodded, and within half an hour, everything they needed was stuffed inside backpacks and they were set to go.

Annabeth would lead the way on the hike, a map in her hands. At the moment, she stood facing the group. "So basically," she called out, "We'll be going uphill for about an hour, then there's a flat part, then some more uphill which'll take maybe half an hour, then a teeny bit of downhill and some more uphill. The whole hike will probably be about four hours. Everyone got it?" The group murmured yes's and Percy focused for a moment on thinking about strategies for hiking uphill without tripping.

"Let me know when you want to stop for a break," disclosed Annabeth, and they started hiking up into the unknown.

* * *

 **So. Shortest chapter ever but it's 11:56 p.m. on the eighteenth as I'm writing this and I needed to get it out for Percy's birthday! I'll be posting a Percabeth one-shot tomorrow as well so look out for that!**

 **Please favourite & follow and review if you have time!**

 **'Til tomorrow!**

 **–ImpulsesOfLife**


	12. Hiking Issues

**A/N: Hi guys! So I wasn't super happy with this chapter, but hopefully it will suffice.**

 **PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ:** **A week and a half ago I posted my first one-shot called And Life Begins and it actually did okay! It takes place on Percy's birthday, which is also Percy & Annabeth's anniversary, and Percy has a surprise for Annabeth up his sleeve… I'm pretty happy with it and it was super fun to write so it'd be awesome if you guys could all check it out and leave a favourite or review! :) (shameless self-advertising there but seriously, it would make my day if you could check it out & review!)**

 **Disclaimer: All rights are Rick's.**

* * *

 **Annabeth's POV**

Annabeth led the group deeper and deeper into the forest. Everyone complained loudly, because there weren't many trees near the path to block out the sun—just a bunch of big bushes and shrubs, plus some little saplings—which made the hike super hot (it was nearly 40˚C… She sure had chosen the _perfect_ day for a four-hour hike!).

"Annabeeeeth," pant-whined Leo, "You didn't tell us hiking would be so _hard!"_

"It's not hard," snapped Annabeth. Leo had been complaining like this for the past hour, and she was getting sick of it. "It's just the heat."

"Who cares," grumbled Leo. "Same difference. Can we stop for water?"

Annabeth groaned, suppressing the urge to face-palm. " _Leo_ ," she said slowly and loudly, as if talking to a small child. "You can drink whenever you want. Your water is right there in the side pocket of your backpack, and so help me, if you're so challenged that you can't even walk and sip from a water bottle at the same time—"

"Fine, fine," said Leo quickly, finally shutting up.

Yeah, it was safe to say Annabeth was _not_ in the best of moods.

"Hey Wise Girl," called Percy, speeding up his pace a bit so he could walk beside her. "How much longer 'til we stop for a lunch break?"

They'd all packed themselves some food in a brown paper bag that they could eat on the hike, because they couldn't hike for four hours without at least a _little_ bit of food. Besides, seeing as they'd left around 10 in the morning, and the hike took four hours, they'd need to stop for lunch at some point.

"Ummm…" sighed Annabeth, checking her watch and the timer she'd set when they'd departed. They'd been hiking for one hour and seventeen minutes, and it was 11:29 in the morning. "Probably in the next half hour."

"Okay," said Percy, seemingly a little disappointed. Knowing her boyfriend and his appetite, Annabeth figured he probably wanted to eat lunch then and there.

"I told you to pack some snacks, though," said Annabeth. "So you can eat a snack while we walk, if you want."

"Okay," repeated Percy, making no effort to retrieve his paper bag full of food from his backpack. It would probably be too much effort to rummage through the backpack while he was walking, and Annabeth, being a bit moody and wanting to get through the hike as quickly as possible so she wouldn't have to listen to Leo complain any longer, wasn't about to stop the whole group for Percy so he could have snack time—even if he _was_ her boyfriend, and even if he was currently giving her the baby seal eyes (which he most definitely was, but Annabeth willed herself to stay strong).

Behind her, Annabeth heard a dramatic-sounding wail and she turned around to find Leo on the ground. "What now?" groaned Annabeth as Calypso bent down to help Leo up (his backpack was off-balancing him so much, he couldn't even stand back up properly).

Leo whispered something to Calypso and Calypso turned to Annabeth, an exasperated look on her face. "He says he tripped over a rock," said Calypso, and Leo pointed to a little rock on the ground no bigger than the size of a toonie. Annabeth rolled her eyes.

Leo cleared his throat and glared pointedly at Calypso. "Also," continued Calypso with a roll of her eyes, "He says that he doesn't want to talk to you because you're being mean." Leo nodded haughtily and gestured with his hands for Calypso to keep talking. The poor girl (Annabeth seriously pitied her for having to deal with the childishness of Leo everyday—but then again, Annabeth sort of had her own childish boyfriend) sighed. "He also says that until you apologize for bringing us on this, and I quote, 'Hell-hike to the death', he will continue giving you the Silent Treatment." Leo nodded again, finally satisfied with what Calypso had said.

Annabeth was seething inside but kept an impassive expression on her face. Annabeth Chase did _not_ get the Silent Treatment from other people. _Other people_ got the Silent Treatment from _Annabeth Chase._

"Leo," said Annabeth, staring at him intensely. She held his gaze for a full ten seconds, until he looked a little scared, and then she spoke.

"If you're not talking to me then that's your problem. But until you _do_ start talking and apologize to _me_ , just know that we're not taking a lunch break. So even though I don't care whether we stop for lunch or not—" That was _such_ a lie—she was starving, too—but Leo didn't need to know that… "—you might want to talk to the rest of the group about your little decision." Out of the corner of her eye, Annabeth watched Percy glare daggers at Leo and she internally smirked. That boy sure did love his food. She figured everyone else was feeling the same hungry anger towards Leo at that moment.

But Leo just turned to Calypso and whispered something in her ear. Calypso turned back to Annabeth. "Annabeth, Leo wants to know if we can stop for a couple minutes so he can talk to everyone else, privately, about…" She turned to Leo and he whispered something else in her ear. "About you being a meanie and not letting us stop for lunch."

Annabeth glared furiously at Leo but after a moment, shook her head and held her hands up exasperatedly. "Fine. But be quick," she snapped, walking a few paces away and putting her hands on her hips.

"Um, Annabeth," called Calypso a moment later, "Leo, uh, wants you to plug your ears."

Annabeth furiously jammed her fingers into her ears, just wanting them to hurry up. This hike was getting worse and worse. And to think about how much she'd been looking forward to it! She'd have to take her own trip to Canada without all these complaining babies (cough- _Leo_ -cough-cough). But if she went by herself, it would be so lonely… Maybe she'd take Frank with her, because he was from Canada. Maybe he knew a good hike to do, or maybe he even knew his way around a forest or two.

Annabeth shook her head clear of thoughts and turned back to the group, unplugging her ears. "Two minutes is up!" she called angrily, turning again to survey the trail ahead. "Come on. We're gonna keep going."

Annabeth took a few steps forward, but something seemed off. It was awfully quiet—she couldn't hear the sound of sixteen other sets of feet pounding against the earth behind her.

Annabeth whipped around and found all sixteen of her friends still standing where they were, arms crossed and smirks on their faces. Leo stood in front of the crowd, Calypso beside him. He whispered something to Calypso, and when he pulled back, he was still smirking. Calypso grimaced slightly but still recited what Leo had told her.

"Annabeth, Leo has declared that until you have a genuine smile on your face, you can't have lunch with us."

Annabeth stared at them all incredulously. "What do you _mean?_ _None_ of us are having lunch."

Piper stepped forward tentatively. "Uh, Annabeth," she said nervously. "I wouldn't question it if I were you. I, um, sort of swore on the Styx along with everyone else that we wouldn't tell you Leo's plan and that we'd help him."

"Piper," sighed Annabeth. " _Why_ on _Earth_ would you agree to help _Leo?!"_

Piper glanced around nervously. "Okay, here's the deal. Leo has this plan, right? Well, he thinks at the moment you're being kind of a mean, overly-serious—"

"Bitch?" suggested Leo in a helpful tone of voice. Annabeth wondered if anyone would mind if she strangled him on the spot.

"Leo!" said Piper in a strained voice. "I was going to say _control freak._ Not… Yeah. Anyways… Leo thinks you're being a control freak. So we're eating lunch, and you have to have a genuine smile on your face before you can eat too. Jason…?"

Jason walked to stand beside Piper. He had his 'Emotionless' face on (Annabeth tried to catalogue the various facial expressions of her friends for times like this) which meant he was either really confident in what he was doing, didn't care, or was scared out of his mind. (Annabeth was hoping for the latter.) "Drop your backpack, Annabeth," he said in a commanding tone of voice.

Annabeth glared at him. "No."

Jason sighed, wringing his hands together. "Annabeth, just drop the backpack or we'll be here all day."

Annabeth just kept on glaring until Jason finally shrugged and said, "I hate to do it like this, but I swore on the Styx I'd help Leo too and I don't want to have bad luck for eternity or something like that…" and then Annabeth was floating in mid-air.

"Jason!" she shrieked, flailing her limbs around wildly.

Jason shook his head. "Drop your backpack!"

Annabeth clenched her teeth in frustration but nevertheless, awkwardly slid out of her backpack and let it fall to the ground. Jason smiled up at her. "Thanks, Annabeth!"

Annabeth glowered at him.

Then her normally loveable but not-so-loveable at the moment boyfriend stepped forward.

"Sorry, Wise Girl," said Percy, not sounding the least bit sorry. Then he lifted his hands to the sky and closed his eyes.

Annabeth let out a little indignant shriek as a wave of cool lake water rushed over her and swirled up, over, around and under her figure.

Annabeth saw Leo smirking evilly at her through the water, and watched as he whispered something to Calypso, who turned to yell up at Annabeth.

"Okay!" hollered Calypso, trying to be heard through the mess of swirling water and wind that Percy and Jason were creating around Annabeth. "Leo now says that this will stop as soon as you start laughing and enjoying yourself. Or as soon as you agree to let us stop for lunch."

Annabeth's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. She angrily tried to smack the wall of water down, though she knew it was a hopeless move—Percy was controlling the water. Obviously she couldn't just _smack_ it away.

Leo whispered something else to Calypso.

"Oh, sorry," yelled Calypso up at her. "Apparently this won't stop until you start having fun _and_ agree to let us stop for lunch."

"What—" Annabeth asked confusedly, but just then Percy yelled up at her.

"Please don't kill me!" he cried, and then he let Annabeth get wet. Now not only was she floating in mid-air and surrounded by a swirling tornado of a water wall, but she was sopping wet, too.

Annabeth sighed exasperatedly and swiped lake water out of her eyes. "Fine!" she hollered. "We can stop for lunch! But I swear to _all_ the gods, if you're going to make me _enjoy_ being held captive in a floating ball of lake water, I'll rip—"

"Alright!" yelled Leo. "Alright. You can come down."

Annabeth grinned, proud of herself. She must've been looking extra intimidating.

The lake water left her form and floated on back to the lake. Jason set her back on the ground gently (had he dropped her, Annabeth would've had a few choice words of her own to say to him, and she would've personally made sure he felt unsafe for the rest of the day).

Once Annabeth was dry again (courtesy of Percy) and had all her gear back, they all slumped to the ground and started eating their lunches. Annabeth's sandwich was soggy and tasted disgusting (she was _certain_ Leo and Percy had something to do with it) but she ate it anyway because just like the rest of her friends, she was starving.

As soon as they finished eating, Annabeth slid her backpack back onto her shoulders and clapped her hands together. "Time to get going!" she called to everyone. Luckily, this time, they obeyed her (ha, _obeyed_ — like she was their ruler or something! Well, for the hike, she kind of was, actually…) and within sixty seconds everyone was back on their feet and ready to move.

The rest of the hike was actually pretty nice. Nobody complained—they must've decided it was unsafe to anger her further (especially because Annabeth was the only one who knew where they were going, and she could easily leave them stranded in the forest).

They made it to their forest campground in perfect time, according to Annabeth's previous calculations. (And yes, she'd actually calculated exactly how long it would take them to get there. Just a precaution.)

Once they reached the clearing–like area, Annabeth plopped her bag onto the ground, a triumphant grin on her face. "We did it!" she announced happily, turning around to survey the group of teens behind her.

Leo made a face. "Uh, we're in the middle of the forest," he stated blatantly.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Well, duh," she said. "There's a reason we call things like this _camping_ and _overnight hiking_ , and not _sleeping in a hotel._ "

Annabeth heard a quiet " _Oooooh!"_ behind her, and turned around to see Nico and Will fist-bumping. "Annabeth and her sass strike again!" whispered Nico. "Sassabeth!" agreed Will. Both were holding back laughter.

Annabeth blinked. "Uh, _I can hear you,_ " she called. Nico and Will's heads whipped around at the exact same time to look at her, expressions of shock and horror plain on their faces. Annabeth snickered. "Relax," she said. "Just start setting up your tarp and sleeping bags."

Nico and Will nodded in sync and simultaneously slid their backpacks off their shoulders to start unpacking things. Annabeth addressed the rest of the group, explaining that they'd lay out the tarps on the ground and place their sleeping bags on top, two per tarp. She figured there was no need for overhead tarps, because the sky was blue and cloudless.

After half an hour, everyone was done setting up their tarps-for-two and sleeping bags. The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur, everyone splitting off to do their own things; most of them went swimming, but a few went to explore the forest or stayed on their sleeping bags playing cards and snacking.

After a delicious dinner of vegetarian chilli (don't be fooled by the _vegetarian_ or the _chilli_ — the stuff was seriously good), the sky started to darken, and everyone gradually wandered back to their tarps and sleeping bags. The campfire Leo had started glowed red and sparked in the dying daylight.

Once everyone was back on the tarps, Travis cleared his throat. "Guys?"

Everyone turned to look at him. Beside Travis, Connor clapped his hands together and rubbed them back and forth mischievously. "So. Who's ready for some Truth or Dare?"

* * *

 **Ooh, Truth or Dare! If you have any truth or dare suggestions you'd like to see in the upcoming chapter, feel free to review or PM me letting me know what you'd like to see.**

 **Sorry for the week-and-a-few-days-long wait and the short-ish bad-ish chapter. Hopefully the next one will come in about a week, depending on how fast I get suggestions for truths/dares and how fast I can come up with them myself!**

 **Don't forget to please check out my Percabeth one-shot, And Life Begins!**

 **–** **ImpulsesOfLife**


	13. Truth or Dare Drama

**Okay guys here's the spiel. I'm horrible, such a long wait, and a crappy chapter to boot, I'm sorry, etc., etc. There are lots of reasons why this chapter is so late though, but I'll spare us all the trouble and keep them to myself.**

 **Anyways, I received a SUPER kind review from a Guest called Huge Fan a few weeks ago on this story, and (you know who you are) you made me feel so genuinely happy with that review so thank you so so so so so so so so much! :)** **And also, thanks to _everyone_ who favourited/followed/reviewed. We're at 20 Reviews, 20 Favourites and 24 Follows, that's amazing! (Let's see what we can raise it to by next chapter...?!) :D Receiving notifications in my inbox makes me so freaking happy and I love you all to the moon and back for reading what I write even if it isn't top of the notch quality. :)**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO, rights belong to Rick.**

* * *

 **Annabeth's POV**

"So," asked Connor mischievously. "Who's ready for some Truth or Dare?"

Katie immediately groaned, face-palming… And face-palming again… And face-palming again… She kept smacking her face until Travis yelled, "Katie-Kat, stop smacking your face, we haven't even started yet!"

Katie's hand slid down her face and she blushed. "Do I _have_ to play?" she whined.

"Yes," said Travis firmly. "This is _not_ an optional game."

Whoa. They were really taking this seriously. Annabeth started to get a little nervous.

"Form a circle!" called Travis. "And I'm going first!"

Everyone scooted around on the sleeping bags until they'd made a giant circle formation. Annabeth was squished in between Percy and Jason. To Jason's right sat Piper, who was unfortunately seated next to Travis.

"Rules," said Connor, looking meanly around the circle and making eye contact with everyone. Annabeth glared back at him so hard he jumped a little.

"One. If you refuse to do a dare, you take off one article of clothing. Socks, shoes and accessories _do not count_. If you refuse to answer a truth, you strip and jump into the lake."

" _What?"_ spluttered Katie. Annabeth had to agree with her reaction on that one.

"You're making us go _skinny dipping_ if we don't answer a _question?"_ asked Calypso incredulously.

"Yes," said Travis.

"Incentive," shrugged Connor.

"Whatever," said Leo. "Let's just start already!"

"Fine," said Travis smugly. " _Leo._ Name all the people associated with the godly world—that means gods, demigods, hunters, anything else mythical—that you've had a crush on, or hit on."

Leo's face turned as red as a tomato. He looked at Calypso, saw the glare on her face, stood up and ran to the lake. "See ya guys later!" he called, taking off his shirt and dropping it as he ran.

"Well, that just happened," muttered Percy beside her. Annabeth raised her eyebrows and nodded. Ten seconds later they heard a faint splash and a yelp, probably Leo as he entered what Annabeth was assuming was frigid water.

"Now what?" asked Katie sullenly. "We wait?"

Travis stared at her for a second. He looked over at the lake. Then he looked back at Katie and shrugged. "Nah. You go."

"Oh, um, okay," stuttered Katie. "Uh, Percy?"

Beside her, Percy grinned. "Yeah?"

"Truth or dare?"

Percy took a couple seconds to think before replying, "Truth. I've seen what you've done to Travis before."

Katie smirked, shrugging. "True. Now. Do you have any guilty pleasures, and if so, name three."

Percy blushed lightly and looked over at Annabeth again. "Uh… Okay… I guess, one, kissing Annabeth…"

Annabeth blushed like mad. She heard a few people snickering and shot glares at the Stolls and Jason and Piper (Jason was right beside her, and his attempt to mask his laughter was _not_ working) before turning back to Percy, because with that first confession, her interest was officially sparked.

"Um… Two, blue food…"

 _Duh,_ though Annabeth, _Say something more embarrassing._

"And three, um, I—bubble baths."

Annabeth guffawed and then slapped a hand over her mouth. She looked over at Percy, eyes sparkling with laughter. _Bubble baths?_

"I, um, call it, um…"

"Spill!" yelled Katie.

"I call it Percy Time," admitted Percy.

" _What?"_ asked Annabeth incredulously.

"Well," said Percy, regaining a bit of his confidence. "I have bubble baths, to, y'know, just unwind I guess. Sometimes I listen to music. It's like having time to yourself, only my time to myself is always spent having bubble baths because I like water, and I call it Percy Time."

Annabeth stared at him a moment and shrugged. "I guess you learn something new every day." Now that she thought about it, it honestly shouldn't have surprised her that much that Percy liked having bubble baths. It was kinda just his personality—and he _was_ a son of Poseidon.

"Perce, your turn," she said, nudging him with her elbow.

"Right," said Percy, a mischievous smile replacing his blush as he looked around the circle. His gaze finally landed on… Annabeth. Oh schist. (Percy had told her about that little incident with Hazel and Frank, and now it was habit for her to think it when something Percy-related was about to happen.)

"Annabeth," said Percy with a smirk. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth," replied Annabeth, wringing her hands together nervously. Percy already had a lot of dirt on her—she had no clue what he was about to make her admit.

"On a scale of one to ten, how good of a kisser am I?"

Annabeth's jaw dropped open and the rest of the circle burst out laughing. _How good of a kisser am I?_ That was the most embarrassing question he could come up with? Annabeth felt throughly relieved.

"Um… Full marks," replied Annabeth with a smile. "Ten out of ten."

Percy looked a little shocked but then covered it up with a grin. "Sweet."

Annabeth laughed, and Percy frowned at her. "What?" he asked confusedly. "How's a guy supposed to know how good he is at kissing unless he asks?" That only made Annabeth laugh more.

"Hm," said Annabeth, trying to decide the next culprit. Her eyes landed on Rachel.

"Rachel. Truth or dare?"

Rachel laughed. "Dare. It _is_ my name."

"I suppose…" grinned Annabeth. "Then I _dare_ you to paint, in full detail—"

"Annabeth," sighed Rachel. "Give me a dare that's actually _hard_. You _know_ I love painting."

"I wasn't finished," replied Annabeth. "As I was saying, I dare you to paint, in full detail, on the chests of the three guys closest to your left-hand side."

Rachel absorbed that information for a second before looking to the left around the circle. She'd have to paint on the chests of Travis, Leo (who'd just returned from his lake dip and was already sucked back into the cycle, the poor guy) and Jason.

Annabeth noticed Rachel pale considerably at the thought of painting the chests of three guys with boyfriends while their girlfriends, who were all super protective, watched on.

"Um, okay," agreed Rachel. "What do I paint?"

"Come here," said Annabeth, hopping up and dragging Rachel to her feet, too. She led her a decent way into the forest, far enough away that no one would hear them talking.

"You paint something on them related to their parents or powers. So do, like, a caduceus on Travis, a flame on Leo and a lightning bolt on Jason. But I'm not done, there's more to the dare."

Annabeth was quite satisfied to see Rachel looking completely worried.

She whispered in Rachel's ear what she was to do, and then sent her off to gather her paints.

• • •

"There!" said Rachel triumphantly as she stepped away from Jason, who was lying on the ground with an intricately painted, pronged bolt of lightning wet on his chest. Leo and Travis were lying next to him, Leo with red, orange and blue flames all over his chest and Travis with a caduceus twisting up the middle of his.

"Now follow me," said Rachel to the guys, who all hopped to their feet.

Annabeth stood back up and walked over to Rachel. She'd be accompanying her to help with the plan. She noticed Rachel was blushing a bit, probably because she'd just painted Jason and nobody could deny he had some serious abs. Leo and Travis, on the other hand, were certainly fit, but neither had such a thing as visible abs. (Especially Leo. He was really quite scrawny.)

Rachel and Annabeth led the guys, all still shirtless and bearing their expertly-painted heritage symbols, through the forest to a cliff extending above the lake. They stopped at the edge, where Annabeth pulled out a digital camera.

"M'kay," said Annabeth. "Jason, Leo, Travis, line up at the edge of the cliff there. I'm taking a picture of this masterpiece Rachel has created on you."

Jason immediately looked suspicious. He narrowed his eyes at Annabeth. "And why did we have to come out here to take it?"

Annabeth merely shrugged. "Scenery's nice."

" _It's pitch black,_ " pointed out Jason, crossing his arms.

"There's such thing as a flash!" huffed Annabeth indignantly. "And uncross your arms, you're smudging the paint!"

"Fine," muttered Jason, uncrossing his arms and moving to line up next to Leo and Travis on the edge of the cliff.

"Rachel, go pose in front of them," ordered Annabeth. Rachel did as instructed.

"Okay," said Annabeth with a grin. "Big smiles, guys! One, two, three— _cheese_!"

A few things happened. As she yelled _cheese!_ , the guys all smiled wide and Rachel whirled around with her arms out. Then she shoved them with all her might and all three guys went flying off the cliff. Annabeth took the picture as Rachel was in mid-shove; the guys all wore expressions of utter shock on their faces. It was hilarious—perfect blackmail material.

"Heeeeyyyy!" yelled Leo as he fell towards the lake. "Not agaaaaaiiiin!"

"I'll get you for thiiiiiiiiis!" yelled Travis.

Jason said nothing. Annabeth hoped he was too in-shock to think of using his powers.

A second later they heard a loud splash. Annabeth high-fived Rachel, laughing—but a moment later a figure came zooming up from the water and landed on the cliff, where he stood, arms crossed, dripping wet and looking a little murderous.

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare," said Jason calmly. "Did you just push us off a fucking cliff?"

Annabeth gulped. She had _not_ been expecting that reaction. And actually, come to think of it, she'd never heard Jason swear before—it was sort of intimidating.

"Um," squeaked Rachel, apparently thinking the same things as Annabeth. "Maybe? But it wasn't my idea, I swear! Annabeth made me—"

 _"_ _Rachel!"_ hissed Annabeth. But it was too late, the damage was done. Jason turned towards Annabeth, eyebrows raised, and crossed his arms. Just then, Leo and Travis came sprinting up towards them.

"Annabeth," panted Leo, "Did you just dare Rachel to push us off a _cliff?!_ Are you _trying_ to kill us?!"

"Yeah!" panted Travis. He was breathing quite heavily, and rested his hands on his knees.

"Yes?" said Annabeth a bit nervously. She didn't feel like messing too greatly with a guy who could control lightning and air and another who could summon fire in his own palms and shoot it at her. Then, refocusing on what she'd just said, Annabeth realized her 'yes' could have been in reply to the 'did Rachel just push us off a cliff' _or_ the 'are you trying to kill us,' and she hastily changed her answer before the boys thought she _really_ had it in for them.

"Um, no," said Annabeth. "I mean yes. I mean… Yes it was my idea to push you off the cliff, but I was just trying to make you a little mad. Not kill you."

"Well, it worked," grumbled Leo. "Not the killing part, though. The mad part. I've had enough of that lake for one night, thank you very much."

And with that, they all traipsed back to the campsite. Annabeth couldn't help the grin spreading across her face—sometimes she just needed to let out a little of the pent-up meanness inside of her.

When they'd all seated themselves on their sleeping bags once again, Leo cleared his throat and said quite matter-of-factly, "I missed my rightful turn when I jumped in the lake. So that means it's my turn to truth-or-dare somebody _now._ "

Connor rolled his eyes and gestured for Leo to get on with it.

Leo sat up a little straighter and glared at Annabeth. "Truth or dare, Annabeth?" he asked with a slightly evil look in his eyes that made Annabeth nervous for her safety.

"I already went!" she cried in protest.

"Well, you're going again," shrugged Leo. "Now pick."

"Fine," grumbled Annabeth. "Um, dare," she responded, and instantly regretted her choice when a malicious grin spread across Leo's face.

"I dare you," said Leo dramatically, "To gather up your sleeping bag, hike for half an hour—which you can time on this stopwatch—in that direction—" here Leo pointed North, "—and once half an hour is up, you plop down on your sleeping bag and spend the night wherever you end up."

" _WHAT?!"_ shrieked Annabeth. "I'd rather jump in the lake!"

"Well, the lake is off limits this time," shrugged Leo.

"But I—"

"No."

" _Leo!"_

"Nope."

"Come _on—_ "

"I think not."

"Leo, would you shut _up_ for a minute and _listen?!"_ growled Annabeth in frustration. "I'll do the gods damn dare on one condition: I get to bring someone with me."

Leo considered a moment but then shrugged. "Fine. Whatever. Just as long as it ain't me."

"Do you _really_ think I'd hike in the dark with _you_ , and then _camp out_ with you in _the middle of nowhere?!"_

"Guess not," said Leo. "So, who're you taking?"

"Percy," replied Annabeth immediately.

"Hey!" cried Percy in protest.

"Shut you mouth, Seaweed Brain, and pack up your sleeping bag."

Percy, thankfully, did as was told. Annabeth didn't want to hear him complaining in her ear; she was already trying _really_ hard not to complain in front of Leo. She didn't want him to think she was the slightest bit scared.

Annabeth and Percy stood up and rolled their sleeping bags tightly. Annabeth stuffed hers, along with her water bottle, into her backpack, which she swung over her shoulders, and beside her she saw Percy doing the same thing. Leo held out a flashlight for each of them; Annabeth snatched hers angrily from his palm. She clicked it on, checked to make sure her dagger was secured around her waist, and then turned towards Percy.

"Ready?" she asked tentatively.

Percy shrugged and grabbed her hand. "As ready as I'll ever be."

And with that, Percy and Annabeth headed North into the darkness of the forest, Leo's annoyingly loud hollering and Travis' whoops of content fading out into the night.

* * *

 **[** **PLEASE READ:** **Bleh, sorry for the crapiness and overall lack of originality. One part in here was derived from a headcanon which I do not own. I suck at Truth or Dare, yet came up with them all on my own ('kay fine the internet helped a bit) and it was really hard. I'm just** ** _done_** **with this story, you know? I'll most likely be posting randomly on it from now on (whenever I get the inspiration) until it's done, so please don't expect regular updates** **from this story specifically** **. However, for those of you who actually enjoy reading it, I'm not abandoning it so don't freak out.]**

 **On a side note, the all-powerful Hurricane Patricia. I hope all the Mexicans out there are coping okay with any damage there might have been. (Also hurricanes and natural disasters really fascinate me for some reason. I spent HOURS researching this thing. Anyone else like that?)**

 **–** **ImpulsesOfLife**

 **P.S. I'm super pumped…I'm working on a new story…no details yet but soon…:)**


	14. Hiking to the Stars

**…** **Honestly, I don't know what to say other than I'm sorry for making you wait so long that your pet fish could be dead by now.**

 **Alright actually, I do have some stuff to say. It'll be at the bottom, and as always, feel free to skip it.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO.**

* * *

 **Annabeth's POV**

"Oww," moaned Percy for the hundredth time. They'd only been walking for ten minutes, and Percy had already managed to trip over his sweat pants five times—six if you counted the spill he'd just taken. Annabeth turned to face Percy, who was now sitting on the ground, clutching his leg to his chest while looking throughly childlike and miserable.

"Percy, get up, please," groaned Annabeth, tugging on his arm. Percy obeyed, whining slightly as he stood unhappily. Annabeth noticed there was a hole in his sweatpants over his right kneecap, so she pointed it out.

"Aww," pouted Percy. "These were my _favourite_ sweatpants."

"Well, then, you shouldn't've brought them camping."

Percy grumbled something that sounded distinctly like, "Well, _I_ for one actually like to _wear_ the clothes that I buy."

Annabeth rolled her eyes and looked down. She, too, was wearing sweatpants; but hers were in perfect condition because she, unlike Percy, did not trip over her own feet every three seconds.

They walked on for another ten minutes, during which Percy fell four more times.

"Okay, clearly those sweatpants are too big for you if you've tripped over them ten times in the past _twenty minutes_ ," noted Annabeth exasperatedly. As she said so, Percy fell yet again—but this time he didn't seem too motivated to get up. He sort of just lay there pathetically on his stomach.

"But sweatpants are only comfortable if they're _big_ ," moaned Percy into the dirt.

"Well, then, you should just wear shorts from now on," snapped Annabeth. "Clearly you can't function properly in pants."

"Uggh," groaned Percy, finally heaving himself up off the ground so they could keep going. Annabeth rolled her eyes and walked on.

Luckily, Percy only fell two more times during the last ten minutes of their trek. When Leo's stopwatch finally beeped signalling the end of their half-hour walk North, Annabeth was thankful beyond relief. Hiking all morning and partway into the afternoon had finally taken its toll on her—she was _exhausted._

Annabeth looked around the forest area where they'd stopped. On the bright side, they'd stopped in a clearing—pinecones, twigs, rocks and pine needles littered the forest floor, but other than that there were no big logs or trees around them for a good fifteen feet in all directions. It was dark, and therefore extremely hard for Annabeth to see (even with her flashlight) as she attempted to sweep away some debris from the ground in an effort to make the dirt a little more comfortable under her sleeping bag. Finally she'd moved away a decent amount of pinecones, sticks and stones, and she set about unravelling her sleeping bag.

When she was done setting it out on the ground, she quickly climbed inside the bundle of mesh material that was her sleeping bag—which was, unfortunately, relatively cold. She hoped her body heat would be enough to keep both her and the sleeping bag warm throughout the—

" _Ughhh_ ," groaned Percy melodramatically, plopping onto the ground and wincing as his butt landed hard on a rock.

"What?" questioned Annabeth curiously. Percy just sat there on the bare ground. Had he seriously just been standing there doing nothing the whole time during which she'd been setting up her sleeping bag?

"Ileftmybackpackopenandmysleepingbagfelloutofitonthewayhere," mumbled Percy inaudibly.

"Repeat that," requested Annabeth.

"I said, I left my backpack open and my sleeping bag fell out of it on the way here," said Percy, letting his head droop in shame. Annabeth found it rather cute how ashamed he was of the loss of his sleeping bag—he reminded her in that moment of a little kid who'd done something wrong, sitting there in his dirt-stained sweatpants, suddenly missing something.

"It's alright," she sighed. "We'll find it in the morning. You can sleep in my sleeping bag."

Percy looked downright scandalized. "But… But it's _your_ sleeping bag!"

Annabeth rolled her eyes and grinned. "Perce, it's not like anything's gonna… y'know… _happen_. We're both fully clothed. Besides, we're dating. It's just like cuddling, really, only… well, only inside a sleeping bag."

Percy blinked a couple times but then shrugged. "I guess." And he climbed right in beside her. It was a tight fit—Annabeth's sleeping bag was only meant for one person, not two teenagers—but she liked being cozied up against Percy, breathing in his ocean scent and being able to run her fingers through his hair… His hair, it was _so_ soft… Annabeth stifled a yawn…

"Annabeth," whispered Percy, and she was aroused from her reverie. "Look up."

Annabeth obeyed and the sight that greeted her eyes left her speechless in bewilderment. The stars shone above them, illuminating the sky in a way Annabeth had never seen before and leaving her mesmerized. They were _everywhere,_ small and bright and twinkling and, well, _up_ there—up there in the great, vast unknown of the universe. She loved it.

"They're beautiful," whispered Annabeth. She felt rather than saw Percy nod in agreement beside her.

"I mean, in New York and San Francisco, you look up at night and you see maybe a couple of stars through the smog. But _here—_ " she gestured loosely with her hands to the area around them— "here in Canada, they're so… plentiful. They're just everywhere. They fill up the sky…"

"I know what you mean," sighed Percy contentedly. "I could stare at them all night…"

Annabeth nodded tiredly, continuing to gaze at the beauty of the stars. She'd never really noticed their great presence before then—she'd never yet had the need during their trip to look up at night, and they slept in tents, so they couldn't see the sky—but she was suddenly _glad_ Leo had sent them on this dare. It wasn't really a dare—it was more of a prolongement of the adventure they were already on; an adventure within an adventure.

Looking up at the stars made Annabeth want to lay there staring at them forever.

But soon she heard Percy's soft snores right next to her ear, and his sleep sounded so peaceful that she, too, couldn't help but succumb to the tiredness threatening to overcome her—and within thirty seconds Annabeth was asleep, just as tranquil and content as Percy.

* * *

 **Sorry this was kinda short! Hopefully it was okay though. I didn't realize until just now, but I've actually had this written for a while. Please read the review shoutout below for more information on my awkwardly long absence:**

 **Review shoutout: DivergentDemigodTribute! Thank you SO much for that awesome review, it was a billion years ago but I can tell you that it definitely made my day! Don't worry, I won't completely drop the story. However, I feel like I've disappointed you. Lately I've just been… Out of it, ya know? I stopped writing for a while, and I regret that because, well, I love it…But I've been feeling like I just don't have any motivation for anything, and that's why I've become an annoying author who dropped her story and reappeared out of the blue half a year later. I've regained my motivation but unfortunately for me, writing this story has been an iffy situation for a while now..** **.I'm just not sure where I want to take it. Therefore... I will update when I can.**

 **Also, I will NOT kill anyone in this story. That's not what it's supposed to be about (excluding those odd few chapters near the beginning...future me is questioning why I pulled that little stunt! Maybe I'll edit them out later).**

 **Anywho. Thanks EVERYONE for the continued Favourites, Follows, Reviews and overall support I've received while I've been MIA. Be back soon, hopefully!**

 **-ImpulsesOfLife**


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